Revealed: Prince Philip's stunning Canadian first love who was blessed with an 'exquisite figure and a loving nature'
20
View
comments
This was the woman who was Prince Philip's first love, according to a new biography.
Osla Benning, a beautiful Canadian-born debutante, had, said a friend, an 'exquisite figure, alabaster white skin and a gentle loving nature.'
She met the future Duke of Edinburgh in 1939 when she was living with the god-daughter of Lord Mountbatten, his uncle.
Beautiful debutante: Osla Benning shared Prince Philip's love of practical jokes, claims a new biography
Philip was two years her senior with a shock of blond hair and the pin-up of the unattached Wrens on the naval base where he was training
The biography, Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life, claims they shared a weakness for practical jokes, including 'escapades involving itching powder'.
Royal pin-up: Prince Philip was the favorite of every Wren on his base
The book to mark his 90th birthday next week, bases details of the affair on newly-released correspondence and interviews with family and friends.
The couple were matched up by Lord Mountbatten's god-daughter Sarah Norton (later Baring).
She recalls: 'Uncle Dickie said to me: "I don’t think Philip’s got a girlfriend at the moment. I wish you could find a nice girl for him because he doesn’t know anyone."
'Osla didn’t have a boyfriend at the time, so I said: "I know, I’ll get them together."
Osla had been brought over from Canada when she was a child following her glamorous mother's divorce.
Her daughter Janie Spring told author Philip Eade that her Osla's childhood was lonely, isolated and confusing.
She said: 'I do know that he was her first love She never told me about him for years. She just said: 'I fell in love with a naval officer.’
'Then I found a wonderful picture of Philip, very young-looking, with his hair all tousled, quite curly… I could see why they got on.
'They were both very much outsiders. Neither of them had experienced much emotional warmth or security as children.'
They made a startling couple, according Eileen Parker, wife of his great friend, Mike Parker.
In love: Princess Elizabeth and husband Prince Philip. She was 17 when he visited Windsor Castle at Christmas, 1943
She described Philip as 'tall, with piercing blue eyes and a shock of blond hair swept back from his forehead.'
She added:“I was not at all surprised to hear that every unmarried Wren on the base had her sights on him.”
When Osla met Philip, she was working at the Hawker-Siddeley aircraft factory in Slough and living in a cottage nearby with Sarah Norton and her father, Lord Grantley, the film-maker and raconteur.
One of her friends, Esme Harmsworth - later Countess of Cromer - remembers having lunch with her at Claridge's.
She said: 'I noticed she was wearing a naval cipher as a brooch. They’re jewelled and not the sort of thing you scatter around.
'Oh’, I said. 'What’s that? Who is it?’ She blushed and ummed and ahhed and eventually said: "Well, he’s called Philip."
Royal family: Queen Elizabeth with her husband Prince Philip and their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne in 1951 in the grounds of Clarence House
'Philip who?’ "Well, he doesn’t have another name… actually he’s Philip of Greece.’" I’m sure it was a serious thing as far as Osla was concerned.”
But Sarah Baring claimed it was a not a 'full-blown affair.'
She said: “I can tell you that right away. We just didn’t think of that at all. We were brought up to what my mother used to call 'behave nicely.’
'I mean the boys could kiss on the cheek, but not much more. We were allowed to hold hands in taxis - that was considered quite daring.
'There were those who went further and we always knew who they were. The word always gets round all the girls.”
Philip and Osla kept in touch when he was away at sea. But at Christmas in 1943, with 'nowhere particular to go', he went with his cousin, David Milford Haven, to stay at Windsor Castle.
According to the book, Princess Elizabeth, then 17, was animated in a way 'none of us had ever seen before', wrote her governess, Marion Crawford.
That weekend of dinner parties, charades, films and dancing to the gramophone proved to be a turning point. Soon after, he and Osla began to drift apart.
After a later visit to Windsor in July, Philip wrote to the Queen of 'the simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.'
He added: 'I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.'
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2BdIWTa2twZ4Cntq%2BvxGaHoaGcnr20ecuorZ5lf6i5onmhnqWnoZ6ceqbE0K6grKGkmnqntcauqZ5lnKTDqrrGZqWarKWnsm%2B006aj