Elizabeth had promised her parents that she would be patient and make certain she still felt the same about Philip on her return from South Africa as she did before. Of course, their passion was intensified, but they still had to wait another two months before their betrothal was officially proclaimed in the court circular on 10 July. As if it were a taste of things to come, on the evening of the announcement the couple could not be together. Philip was on duty at Corsham and Elizabeth was a guest at a private dance at Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, where successive Dukes of Wellington had lived since a grateful nation had presented the property to the victor of the Battle of Waterloo.

Across the country and the world, thousands of newspapers and magazines published photographs of the smiling couple. Winston Churchill, the then leader of the opposition, having lost the election in 1945 to Clement Attlee’s Labour Party, said that the engagement was ‘a flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel’. There was some opposition to a lavish wedding in those austere times. In a letter addressed to King George VI, the Camden Town branch of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers wrote: ‘Any banqueting and display of wealth at your daughter’s wedding will be an insult to the British people at the present time. You would be well advised to order a very quiet wedding in keeping with the times.’

But most others responded in a more positive way. Among the thousands of congratulatory messages sent to Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth was one from Mike Parker, his close friend from his earlier naval days. To Mike’s surprise, in Prince Philip’s letter of thanks he wrote: ‘I would like to mention that I am considering getting some staff together and would like you to join this as general nanny and factotum.’ Philip’s new staff included a secretary, a private detective and a valet, John Dean. To this group was added Parker as equerry-in-waiting.

In keeping with his new standing, Philip went to live at Kensington Palace with his grandmother the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven. He was later joined by his best-man-to-be David Milford Haven. John Dean duly arrived at Kensington Palace at eight every morning to wake Philip and David with cups of tea and to clean their shoes and see to their clothes. Philip was a heavy smoker and kept John busy refilling the cigarette boxes and emptying ashtrays. But out of sheer willpower, which he was still displaying in his nineties, when he gets up at 5am to be ready for an early start, Philip gave up smoking on his wedding day, at the request of his bride to be.