The examinations at Portsmouth were passed with distinction and Philip was soon back at sea as a sub-lieutenant on HMS Wallace. It was around this time that he first met Australian Mike Parker. At first, they were rivals, later the best of friends and they happened to be the two youngest first lieutenants in the navy. Parker recalled: ‘We were highly competitive. We both wanted to show we had the most efficient, cleanest and best ships in the navy.’ Mike’s girlfriend Eileen, whom he later married, met Philip when he and Mike were stationed at Rosyth naval base on the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

‘I recollect so well, thinking at the time, what a handsome man Philip of Greece was,’ Eileen noted. ‘Tall with piercing blue eyes and a shock of blond hair swept back from his forehead. I was not at all surprised to hear that every unmarried Wren on the base had her sights on him.’ She went on to say that it was inconceivable that such an eligible young officer didn’t have a sweetheart somewhere, but nobody ever came close enough to him to find out who it might be.

Eileen was right about Philip having, if not a sweetheart, then at least a girlfriend. Osla Benning was a beautiful Canadian-born debutante whom Philip first met in 1939, when she shared a flat with Sarah Baring, a god-daughter of Dickie Mountbatten, who asked her to introduce Philip to a nice girl. Osla and Philip became close friends and used to go dancing at the 400 Club, which was housed in a cellar in Leicester Square and was described by a newspaper as ‘the night-time headquarters of society’. It had an eighteen-piece orchestra, which always played softly to avoid drowning out conversation. There was a minute dancefloor and food, but no menu. If guests wanted to eat, they simply ordered whatever they wished and it was served promptly, which was no mean feat at that time. According to Sarah Baring, the couple kept in touch when Philip was at sea, as Osla showed Sarah letters from Philip saying how much he was looking forward to seeing her when he got back. Evidently Philip was a busy letter writer.

‘I do know that he was her first love,’ said Osla’s daughter Janie Spring years later. ‘She never told me about him for years. She just said: “I fell in love with a naval officer.” Then I found a wonderful picture of Philip, very young-looking, with his hair all tousled, quite curly . . . I could see why they got on. They were both very much outsiders with no roots in the English milieu in which they moved. Neither of them had experienced much emotional warmth or security as children. Probably unconsciously, they recognised this similarity in each other and this is what gave them a special bond.’