Interesting education and military service:
In 1933, he was sent to Schule Schloss Salem in southern Germany, which was run by educational pioneer Kurt Hahn. But within months, Hahn, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Nazi persecution.
Seafaring tradition
Hahn moved to Scotland where he founded Gordonstoun school, to which the prince transferred after only two terms in Germany.
Gordonstoun's Spartan regime, with its emphasis on self-reliance, was the ideal environment for a teenage boy who, separated from his parents, felt very much on his own.
With war looming, Prince Philip decided on a military career. He wanted to join the Royal Air Force but his mother's family had a seafaring tradition and he became a cadet at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
While there he was delegated to escort the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, while King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured the college.
According to witnesses, Prince Philip showed off a great deal. But the meeting made a deep impression on the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth.
Philip quickly proved himself an outstanding prospect, passing out at the top of his class in January 1940 and seeing military action for the first time in the Indian Ocean.
He transferred to the battleship HMS Valiant in the Mediterranean Fleet, where he was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.
As the officer in charge of the ship's searchlights, he played a crucial role in this decisive night action.
"I found another ship and it lit up the middle part of it, whereupon it practically disappeared instantly under a salvo of 15in shells at point-blank range," he told BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
By October 1942, he was one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Royal Navy, serving on board the destroyer HMS Wallace.
