The palace old guard did not approve. They were most concerned with his apparent desire to continue bachelor friendships with people of somewhat dubious reputation. Their attitude, rather than reining him back, seemed only to spur Philip on his own way. Independent and single-minded, he disliked the constraints imposed by his membership of the royal family. Learning to fly a helicopter proved difficult, even though he had already earned his ‘wings’ in 1953. When Prime Minister Winston Churchill heard that Philip was learning to become a helicopter pilot as well, he summoned Parker to Downing Street, kept him standing in silence for several minutes while he carried on working at his desk, then gave him ‘a long accusing stare’ and coldly asked: ‘Is your objective the destruction of the whole of the royal family?’

In the spring of 1949, Elizabeth and Philip toured Lancashire by train followed by a tour of the Channel Islands on the training battleship HMS Anson and at last were able to move into Clarence House. Under Philip’s supervision, Clarence House had been fitted out with the latest household gadgets including an intercom system, washing machines in the laundry and an electric trouser press for Philip’s valet. The servants’ quarters had a radio in every bedroom and a television, still something of a novelty, was in the staff sitting room. Much of the furniture and fittings in the house had been wedding presents. Both Elizabeth and Philip had offices next door at St James’s Palace, to which Clarence House was connected by a passage on the first floor leading into the state apartments. The staff were mainly young and Parker described the atmosphere as being full of fun, very different from Buckingham Palace where, according to Parker, ‘Philip didn’t have many friends and helpers’.

The King’s health improved in the summer, not enough for him to take on an arduous overseas tour, but sufficient for him to allow Philip to return to active service in the navy. Philip was posted as first lieutenant to HMS Chequers, the lead ship of the Mediterranean destroyer fleet based in Malta. The advantage of Malta was that Elizabeth could fly out to join her husband for lengthy stays.

While Chequers was being refitted in the dockyards in Malta, Philip stayed with Dickie Mountbatten in the villa he had rented while commander of the First Cruiser Squadron. Elizabeth joined them for her second wedding anniversary in November. Her time in Malta has been described as the only time in her life when she could live like an ordinary naval wife, driving herself, going to the hairdresser and shopping. It was a life less ordinary.