Philip was three months old when he made his first visit to England with his mother and sisters. In spite of the long journey, they wanted to attend the funeral of Philip’s maternal grandfather, Admiral of the Fleet Prince Louis of Battenberg, by then the Marquis of Milford Haven. The family travelled by train to London from Athens via Rome and Paris. Nanny Roose, a maid for Alice and Andrea’s valet made up the party.

The family may have lived in relatively straitened circumstances, but there were always funds for travel. One month later in Corfu, Andrea, back from the front, summoned the local mayor to Mon Repos for the official registration of Philip’s birth. With the Queen Mother Olga of Greece as his godmother, he was given the name of ‘Philippos’ in the registry of births. This was followed by a formal christening in the Orthodox church in Corfu City. Cheering crowds lined the streets leading to the church where a band played and the city officials watched the baby Philip being immersed in the font.

In July 1922, the family and their entourage travelled to London again for the wedding of Alice’s younger brother Lord Louis Mountbatten (Uncle Dickie to Philip) to the heiress Edwina Ashley. The grand wedding took place at St Margaret’s, Westminster, with the glamorous Prince of Wales as best man and King George V leading the congregation of royalty from all across Europe. All four of Philip’s sisters were bridesmaids, dressed in white and delphinium blue. Philip was deemed too young to attend and remained with Nanny Roose at Spencer House where they were all staying.

But this relatively settled life was about to be thrown into chaos, as the ongoing Greco-Turkish War was about to take a decisive turn after three years of fighting in the aftermath of the First World War. One month later, the Greek forces were routed by the Turks at Smyrna. Greek casualties were heavy and more than a million Greeks became refugees.

The earlier Greek advance, in which Andrea had participated, had turned into a crushing Turkish victory, and by the autumn of 1922 the Greeks had been driven out of Asia Minor, so ending a presence there which dated back 2500 years. Smyrna, the main Greek town on the Asian mainland, was sacked, and a young Aristotle Onassis was among those who escaped and he fled to Argentina to start his own meteoric social climb.

Meanwhile, there had been growing opposition to the war in Greece, and immediately after the fall of Smyrna the nation rose in revolution. Prince Andrea was arrested, charged with treason and faced death by firing squad, a fate that had befallen several of his fellow officers.

‘How many children do you have?’ Greece’s new military leader, General Theodoros Pangalos, asked his royal prisoner.

‘Five,’ Andrea replied.

‘Poor little orphans,’ the general said.