Heartbreaking events that made Prince Philip tough and perfect person to be the Queen's consort

When Prince Philip was a just a boy his mother was sent to a psychiatric clinic and he was sent to Britain to be brought up by his uncle and extended family.

He was sent to the tough Gordonstoun boarding school on the edge of the North Sea in Scotland.

It was while he was there his heavily pregnant sister Cecile, her husband George and Philip's two young nephews were killed in a plane crash in Steene, Belgium.

His headmaster Kurt Hahn told the young prince and he apparently did not break down, he recalled: “His sorrow was that of a man."

A book on Philip's early life by Philip Eade recalls how the trials of the Queen's husband, who it was announced today would be stepping back from public life, far from damaging him gave him steel which helped in in later life.

Philip was born at Mon Repos, the family’s Regency villa on the island of Corfu and registered in nearby Corfu Town under the name of Philippos.

The first boy after four sisters, he was sixth in line to the Greek throne. Continue....