Boris Johnson pays tribute to Prince Philip's military career at Dartmouth naval college 

Boris Johnson said his thoughts were with the Queen as he visited the place where she first met her husband the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prime Minister toured the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, where Prince Philip began his naval career.

In 1939, a 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth was shown around by her future husband, then an 18-year-old naval cadet.

Boris Johnson said his thoughts were with the Queen as he visited the place where she first met her husband the Duke of Edinburgh

Photographs from the visit show the pair playing croquet together. They married eight years later in 1947. 

Mr Johnson, who yesterday attended a passing out parade, paid tribute to the duke’s ‘amazing distinguished Navy career – the Battle of Cape Matapan, Sicily and then seeing the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay’.

Today’s cadets were ‘incarnating the finest traditions of the Royal Navy, in the way the duke did himself’, he said. 

While at Britannia in 1939, Philip was assigned to entertain the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret during a two-day visit by King George VI. A historic image shows them talking together behind a wall at the college.

‘And actually, funnily enough, here in this very garden – I think in 1939 – the Duke of Edinburgh met the then Princess Elizabeth for the very first time, so our thoughts are with her again today.’

Mr Johnson will not attend Prince Philip’s funeral tomorrow to allow another family member to attend.

British prime ministers are normally present at royal funerals, but Covid restrictions limit the number of mourners to 30.

Philip served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and later went on to command his own vessel while based in Malta