Until his death in April last year, The Queen and Prince Philip shared 73 wonderful years of marriage together. Over the years, the Queen and her Consort welcomed four children, eight grandchildren, and six great grandchildren, with an additional three born after the death of Prince Philip.
During his time by his wife's side as a working member of the Royal Family, Prince Philip became the longest-serving consort of any British monarch. Before he retired from royal duties in 2017, the former Prince of Denmark and Greece completed more than 22,000 solo engagements.
The love story that blossomed between the pair dates all the way back to the 1930s. The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, caught the eye of the Prince of Greece in the summer of 1939, when she was just 13 years old and he was 18.
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Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, were on a trip to the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, which their father attended in his youth, when a handsome young Prince Philip walked in. It is said that the future queen was attracted to Philip because of his fair hair and blue eyes.
Philip was invited onto Elizabeth's father's, King George VI, yacht for meals, which caused a vivid blush to erupt across the young princess' face. Her extreme fondness for Philip was evident to several family members, including her cousin, Margaret Rhodes, who later revealed in her autobiography that Elizabeth was 'truly in love from the beginning'.
Although the Dartmouth meeting was special, it was not the first time the pair met. They were first introduced to each other in 1934, at the wedding of Prince Philip's cousin, Princess Marina, to Prince George.
Shortly after Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth's meeting in Dartmouth, the Second World War broke out, during which time Philip was promoted to first lieutenant, the youngest in the war. Whilst Philip served in the Pacific and Mediterranean Fleets, he communicated with Elizabeth by sending letters.
The couple became engaged two years after the war had finished, in 1947, and wed at Westminster Abbey that November. Of course, by this time Elizabeth was still just a princess; her ascension to the throne did not come until 1952, when she took her vows following the death of her father, aged just 25.
Shortly before the wedding, Prince Philip was awarded the title of the Duke of Edinburgh, in addition to the Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London. The wedding, which was attended by 2,000 guests, made Princess Elizabeth the tenth royal to tie the knot at Westminster Abbey.
Elizabeth walked down the aisle wearing a floor-length dress designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, which was decorated with floral and star patterns and 10,000 seed pearls. The duchess satin dress had a 15-foot train, and was inspired by Botticelli's Primavera.
Just a few days before the couple's first anniversary, they welcomed Prince Charles, who is heir to the throne. In 1950, Princess Anne arrived, with Andrew being born ten years later in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.
In 2017, the couple celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary, an occasion which was marked by the bells of Westminster Abbey ringing and a private dinner with family and friends of the couple at Windsor Castle. The pair would have celebrated their 74th year as a married couple in November 2021.
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