Prince Philip’s mother, Alice, founded an order of nuns and his great aunt Ella (Grand Duchess Serge) was canonised as a Holy Martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church after her horrific murder by the Bolsheviks. Religion ran in his family, and it would play a central part in the prince’s own life, especially as he grew older.
Born in 1921 on the island of Corfu, Philip was baptised there as a baby in the Greek Orthodox rite. Soon after, the family fled a coup aboard a British warship sent by King George V, a first cousin of Philip’s father (Prince Andrew of Greece), who was anxious to atone for reneging on his promise to give sanctuary to their other mutual first cousin, Tsar Nicholas II.
