Prince Philip was eighteen when he joined the Royal Naval College Dartmouth to undertake an officers’ training course. On 1 January 1940 he joined the battleship HMS Ramillies in the Indian Ocean. He subsequently served in HMS Kent, HMS Shropshire, HMS Valiant and HMS Wallace. In 1944, the year this photograph was taken, the 23-year-old Prince Philip was appointed First Lieutenant of the new Fleet destroyer HMS Whelp.