A very fine ROMANCE

It’s a love story that lasted for almost three-quarters of a century, and it began when the Queen was barely a teenager

- SHARON PARSONS

She knew, apparently, from the very moment they were introduced 82 years ago. Aged just 13, Princess Elizabeth blushed furiously whenever the handsome Navy cadet Philip Mountbatten – her third cousin and five years her senior – so much as glanced in her direction.

Elizabeth, along with her parents and sister Princess Margaret, was visiting the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, and Philip had been appointed to entertain the princesses. Governess Marion Crawford missed nothing, recalling how impressed her young charge had been when Philip leapt across the nets on the tennis court. ‘How high he jumps, Crawfie!’ she’d declared.

It was to be several years before the dashing officer would suddenly realise this shy young schoolgirl had grown up… and romance truly blossomed. Theirs was a discreet courtship – they even adopted the song People Will Say We’re in Love from the hit musical Oklahoma! because the lyrics, telling of a secret romance, were so apposite.