By August 1944, Philip’s ship was fully commissioned and ready for service. Both Whelp and Mike Parker’s ship HMS Wessex were sent to join the Pacific fleet. Philip and Mike met up at the Australian base of the fleet. On shore leave, Mike organised society parties in both Sydney and Melbourne where every eligible young heiress wanted to meet the handsome prince. By then both Mike and Philip had grown luxuriant beards. They used to joke at parties that Mike was the prince and vice versa. Many girls flung themselves at Philip, but Mike claimed that nothing serious ever went on with the ‘armfuls of girls . . . we were young, we had fun, we had a few drinks, we might have gone dancing and that was it’.

By then, not only were Philip and Princess Elizabeth corresponding regularly but they each had photographs of the other on display. The princess had a picture of Philip with his beard on her dressing table and for his part her photo was on display in his cabin aboard ship. His service in the Far East would keep him away from England for some time yet, however, delaying any further developments in their relationship and giving it its first test.

Meanwhile, back in England, in February 1945 Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver and car maintenance expert. She would proudly wear the ATS uniform of a junior commander on Remembrance Day 1945, the first to be observed for six years, when she placed her own wreath upon the Cenotaph.

By that stage, people realised that the war in Europe was coming to an end. Elizabeth could move back into her old apartments in Buckingham Palace. Her bedroom was her favourite shade of pink, with chintz covers for the chairs (she still loves these) and although she had her own sitting room, she still had breakfast every morning in the old nursery with Margaret. Their childhood string of horses on wheels were still on the landing, almost as though the last six years had never happened.

Her father was right to urge caution on the subject of marriage. Elizabeth was still partly a child as she had been shut away in Windsor Castle for much of the war. Although she had a deeply developed sense of duty, which made her appear more sophisticated than she really was, she was still very innocent and lacked experience of many normal events. Throughout the war, she hadn’t been able to see a play or one single concert that she so loved. All her music and entertainment came to her, as it did to many others, through the medium of the radio. The whole royal family sat together and listened to Tommy Handley, in the comedy show ITMA (‘It’s That Man Again’).