Prince Philip's birth certificate unearthed close to Greek villa where he was born - The Mirror

Written in Katharevousa Greek by a priest named Spiriodon Tryfonas, the 1921 document said the future Duke was formally named 'Philippos' during his baptism into the Greek Orthodox Church

Prince Philip's birth certificate has been uncovered in Greece nearly a century after he was born.

The document, on the island of Corfu, had been buried in an archive for nearly 100 years.

Written in Katharevousa Greek by a priest named Spiriodon Tryfonas, it said he was formally named 'Philippos' during his baptism into the Greek Orthodox Church.

The Duke of Edinburgh's birth certificate was shown to the Mail on Sunday after being kept in an old British Army barracks.

The document says the baby was presented by Prince Andrew of Greece, the future Duke's father - with his date of birth stated as May 28, 1921 - under the old Julian calendar.

The date he was born is now recognised as June 10, 1921.

The certificate says the baby's mother was 'Her Royal Princess Aliki', and her father Louis, Prince of Battenberg was "born in Windsor Castle".

Vasiliki Maniarizi, 70, granddaughter of Stylianos Maniarizis, who witnessed Philip's baptism in his position as president of Corfu's Municipal Council, told the Mail on Sunday: "It was a great honour that my grandfather was one of the two godfathers to Prince Philip.

"Although I never met him, my father would recount the story of the baptism many times. I am proud of my grandfather."

Philip was born at Mon Repos, a Regency villa on the island of Corfu on June 10, 1921, to Prince Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and his name was officially registered as Philippos.

At 18 months old, Philip and his family were forced into exile after a military coup. Philip was evacuated in a makeshift cot made from an orange box.

The couple already had three daughters, but as their first son he was sixth in line to the Greek throne.

His early years should have been a sun-kissed idyll but the family was caught in the tumult that gripped Europe for the first half of the 20th century.

His mother Princess Alice, the great-grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, suffered from a form of psychosis and in 1931 was forcibly confined to a Swiss psychiatric sanatorium

The Duke was evacuated from Corfu on a British warship, HMS Calypso, in a cot made from a fruit box.