Before the official announcement of their engagement in July 1947, Philip stopped using his Greek and Danish royal titles and styles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents' surname Mountbatten.

The Marquess of Milford Haven was a naturalised British subject who, after a career in the Royal Navy, had renounced his German titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten—an Anglicised version of Battenberg—during the First World War, owing to anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom.

After visiting London for his grandfather's memorial service, Philip and his mother returned to Greece, where Prince Andrew had remained to command a Greek Army division embroiled in the Greco-Turkish War.

[14] In 1930 Philip was sent to Britain to live with his maternal grandmother at Kensington Palace and his uncle George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, at Lynden Manor in Bray, Berkshire.

[15] Over the next three years, his four sisters married German princes and moved to Germany, his mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in an asylum,[16] and his father took up residence in Monte Carlo.

[18] In 1933 Philip was sent to Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, which had the "advantage of saving school fees", because it was owned by the family of his brother-in-law Berthold, Margrave of Baden.

[26] After leaving Gordonstoun in early 1939, Philip completed a term as a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, then repatriated to Greece, living with his mother in Athens for a month in mid-1939.

[28] During the Second World War, he continued to serve in the British forces, while two of his brothers-in-law, Prince Christoph of Hesse and Berthold, Margrave of Baden, fought on the opposing German side.

[28] In June 1942, he was appointed to the destroyer HMS Wallace, which was involved in convoy escort tasks on the east coast of Britain, as well as the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Philip returned to the United Kingdom on the Whelp in January 1946 and was posted as an instructor at HMS Royal Arthur, the Petty Officers' School in Corsham, Wiltshire.

[41] By March 1947, Philip had adopted the surname Mountbatten from his mother's family and had stopped using his Greek and Danish royal titles upon becoming a naturalised British subject.

Although as the consort of the Queen, he might in time have been made Grand Master of British Freemasonry, Elizabeth's cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, assumed that role in 1967.

"[69] In February 1960, the Queen issued an Order in Council declaring that Mountbatten-Windsor would be the surname of the couple's male-line descendants who are not styled as Royal Highness or titled as prince or princess.

[72] Six months after she acceded to the throne, Elizabeth announced that Philip was to have "place, pre-eminence and precedence" next to her "on all occasions and in all meetings, except where otherwise provided by Act of Parliament".

[94] In 1961 he became the first member of the royal family to be interviewed on television, after he appeared on Panorama to answer questions by Richard Dimbleby about the Commonwealth Technical Training Week, an initiative of which he was patron.

His first solo engagement as Duke of Edinburgh was in March 1948, presenting prizes at the boxing finals of the London Federation of Boys' Clubs at the Royal Albert Hall.

[117] In 2017 the British Heart Foundation thanked Philip for being its patron for 55 years, during which time, in addition to organising fundraisers, he "supported the creation of nine BHF-funded centres of excellence".

[128] Over the next few years, Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son Dodi Fayed was also killed in the crash, claimed that Philip had ordered the death of Diana and that the accident was staged.

[131] Personally, he was not enthused about living an extremely long life, remarking in a 2000 interview (when he was 79) that he could not "imagine anything worse" and had "no desire whatsoever" to become a centenarian, saying "bits of me are falling off already".

[139] While staying at Sandringham House in December 2011, Philip suffered chest pains and was taken to the cardio-thoracic unit at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire, where he underwent successful coronary angioplasty and stenting.

[141] In June 2012, during the celebrations in honour of his wife's diamond jubilee, Philip was taken from Windsor Castle to King Edward VII's Hospital suffering from a bladder infection.

[157] That October, he also accompanied Elizabeth to the wedding of their granddaughter Princess Eugenie of York with Jack Brooksbank,[158] with The Telegraph reporting that Philip works on a "wake up and see how I feel" basis when deciding whether to attend an event or not.

[167] In December 2019, Philip stayed at King Edward VII's Hospital and received treatment for a "pre-existing condition" in a visit described by Buckingham Palace as a "precautionary measure".

[175][176] In March, Philip was transferred by ambulance to St Bartholomew's Hospital to continue treatment for an infection, and to undergo "testing and observation" relating to a pre-existing heart condition.

[186][188] The usual public ceremonial could not take place because of the regulations for the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted the number of mourners to thirty; it was later reported in the press that Elizabeth had rejected a government offer to relax the rules.

[209][fn 5] As well as a reputation for bluntness and plain speaking,[211] Philip was noted for occasionally making observations and jokes that have been construed as either funny, or as gaffes: awkward, politically incorrect, or even offensive, but sometimes perceived as stereotypical of someone of his age and background.

[218] In a private conversation with British students from Xi'an's Northwest University during a state visit to China in 1986, Philip joked: "If you stay here much longer, you'll go slit-eyed.

[232] In the same month, a documentary initially planned for his centenary was broadcast on BBC One under the title Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, with contributions from his children, their spouses, and seven of his grandchildren.

[234][235] He also appears as a fictional character in Nevil Shute's novel In the Wet (1952), Paul Gallico's novel Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Moscow (1974), Tom Clancy's novel Patriot Games (1987), and Sue Townsend's novel The Queen and I (1992).

In 1993 scientists were able to confirm the identity of the remains of several members of the Romanov family, more than seventy years after their murder in 1918, by comparing their mitochondrial DNA to living matrilineal relatives, including Philip.