Lady Pamela Hicks, former lady-in-waiting and Queen Elizabeth’s bridesmaid, revealed that Prince Philip used to “show off” incessantly in front of her majesty and her sister, Princess Margaret, when they were young.
Hicks, 92, who is also the late Prince’s cousin, co-hosted a panel called “70 Years of Duty and Friendship” at a virtual event last Friday, alongside her daughter, India Hicks.
The event took place ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Sunday.
During the panel, her daughter India revealed that Mountbatten believed that the Duke of Edinburgh and the then-Princess Elizabeth would be a suitable match.
“Your father, my grandfather, had already thought it might be quite a good thing,” India told lady Pamela.
“They met when she went to visit Dartmouth College at 13 and already then she was rather struck by Prince Philip.”
Lady Pamela responded, praising her late cousin, in a backhanded way: “Well, he was a Greek god, and of course, showing off like mad because he was told to look after the two princesses, and so he showed off like mad. Later, every girl in England was in love with him. He really was stunning.”
She later revealed that the royals were mortified by Philip’s antics.
“A Greek prince with no money, no position in court and in fact he was pretty homeless.”
“Where was the upright Scottish or English nobleman or duke she should be marrying? Not carrying on with a penniless Greek prince,” adding that even the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill was “against” Philip.
“Churchill really was very constructive and felt the penniless Greek prince should be kept in the background and the Queen was too young and inexperienced to have the strength to argue with him,” Lady Pamela said.
“So it was a few years before she felt competent enough to say she wanted Philip to have a job and be employed. To know the Queen is to admire her above all else,” she concluded.
