His German family wanted him brought up in Germany, and sent him to the school they had founded at Schloss Salem in Baden-Wurttemberg. But Hitler’s rise to power put paid to that. Philip followed the Jewish headmaster, Kurt Hahn, to Scotland, where he founded a new school, Gordonstoun, with a forthright philosophy and the motto, “More is in you (than you think)”.
身在德国的家人希望他在德国长大，并把他送入他们在巴登-符腾堡州（Baden-Württemberg）创办的萨勒姆王宫中学就读。但希特勒掌权后让这一切努力都付诸东流。菲利普跟随犹太校长库尔特·哈恩(Kurt Hahn)来到苏格兰，在那里哈恩创办了一所高仕德学校。该校的办学理念简洁明了，校训是“你我皆是黑马”。
As a schoolboy Philip was often naughty, though never nasty. He developed a strong sense of public duty and a taste for speed; he excelled at sports and learned to sail, often being given the job of galley cook as he seemed immune to seasickness.
学生时期的菲利普虽然时常淘气，但从未行过火之事。他培养了强烈的公共责任感、喜欢追求速度；他擅长运动，还学会了航海，经常被叫到厨房帮厨，因为他似乎从不晕船。
At 18 he went on to Dartmouth Naval College in the south of England, where he was named best cadet. When the second world war broke out that same year, he sailed to Colombo and joined a lumbering battleship escorting convoys of Australian troopships bound for Egypt. On board Philip passed some of his time filling out Admiralty Form S519, “Journal for Use of Junior Officers”, a ruggedly bound volume with marbled endpapers.
18岁时，他进入了英格兰南部的达特茅斯海军学院，在那里他被评为最佳学员。同年，当第二次世界大战爆发时，他航行到了科伦坡，并登上了一艘护送澳大利亚舰队前往埃及的庞大战舰。菲利普在船上花了些时间填写海军部第S519期《初级军官使用日志》，这是一本装订粗糙、内页有大理石花纹的日志。
The entries reveal a passion for technicalities and a waywardness with spelling. Hitler’s Axis allies are consistently “Italiens”; buoys pop up as “bouys”; he writes “misstakes”, and “exept”. On the title page he signed his name, Philip, Prince of Greece; the men called him Pog. In the evenings he was “Captain’s Doggie” and one of his duties was to make the cocoa.
这些笔记显示出他对研究技术细节的热忱以及在单词拼写方面的随意。希特勒的轴心国盟友国始终是“Italiens“（意大利人，正确写法为“Italians”）；浮标（buoys）写成了“bouys”，还拼错了“misstakes”和“exept”（正确写法为“mistakes”和“except”）。在书的扉页上，他签上了自己的名字：希腊王子菲利普；人们称他为”Pog“（Prince of Greece）。到了晚上，他就变成了“船长的爱宠”，职责之一就是制作恒星。
only after Italy’s invasion of Greece in June 1940 did Philip begin to see any action. And when it came, it was dramatic. His ship, HMS Valiant, was at the centre of the battle that destroyed the Italian navy. Philip was mentioned in dispatches, and emerged from the war one of the youngest first lieutenants. In Buckingham Palace the teenage Princess Elizabeth kept a photograph on her dressing-table of the bearded young officer serving in her father’s navy. He bore a striking resemblance to her grandfather, King George V.
直到1940年6月意大利入侵希腊后，菲利普才开始看到一些行动。这场战争颇具戏剧性。他的军舰“HMS Valiant”号是摧毁意大利海军战斗的中坚力量。菲利普在战报中被提起，一战成名，战争结束后，他被提拔为最年轻的中尉之一。在白金汉宫，十几岁的伊丽莎白公主在梳妆台上放了一张照片，照片上的这位蓄着胡须的年轻军官在她父亲的海军服役。他和她的祖父国王乔治五世长得非常像。
