Once the Queen and Prince Philip were married, the period over which the biggest questions arise in many people’s minds came in 1956, when Philip left the Queen at home with the children and embarked on a world tour on the royal yacht Britannia, with the object of visiting some of the smaller far-flung outposts of the Commonwealth, as well as opening the Melbourne Olympics on 22 November that year. The tour lasted just over four months. Questions were raised at the time in the press as to why Philip had left his family in London for so long, and there were rumours of wild parties during the voyage. Britannia had a crew of 220 men and twenty officers. Also on board were Mike Parker and an aide-de-camp to Philip. It is hardly credible that anything could have taken place without the knowledge of at least some of those on board.

Perhaps led on by baseless gossip, Joan Graham, the London-based Mayfair correspondent of the Baltimore Sun, ran the story in 1957 that London was rife with rumours that the Duke of Edinburgh had more than a passing interest in an unnamed woman whom he met on a regular basis in the West End apartment of a society photographer (presumably his friend Baron Nahum). ‘Report Queen, Duke in Rift Over Party Girl’ ran the headline. The story was soon picked up by the international press. The rumours were further fuelled by the fact that Mike Parker had chosen this moment to tender his resignation. It was taken as a sign that he had to go because he had been leading Philip astray, but in fact he felt he had to resign because his wife had filed a petition for divorce from him.

According to Parker, ‘The Duke was incandescent. He was very, very angry. And deeply hurt.’ In a break from the rule that the Palace never comments on rumour, the Queen authorised an official and complete denial. ‘It is quite untrue that there is any rift between the Queen and the Duke,’ said Commander Richard Colville, the royal press secretary.

In a letter from February 1958, Princess Margaret touched on the controversy when writing to her American friend Sharman Douglas, whose father had been the US ambassador in London in the late 1940s: ‘I see the fine old press in your country tried to make out the Queen wasn’t getting on with my b-in-l [brother-in-law]. So of course, the stinking Press here repeated it all sheep-like, like the nasty cowards they are. However, all is well and he’s terribly well and full of fascinating stories of his journeys and it’s very nice indeed to have him home again. The children are thrilled.’