It is typical of the Duke of Edinburgh that he did not want a book, catalogue, or ‘any such nonsense’ to accompany a new exhibition marking his 90th birthday this year. ‘We tried to persuade him,’ says Theresa-Mary Morton, the head of exhibitions at the Royal Collection. ‘After all, it is an exhibition celebrating his many achievements, but he was adamant. He simply didn’t want the fuss.’

The man who has walked just a few steps behind the Queen for the best part of 60 years will nevertheless be the centre of attention when Prince Philip: Celebrating Ninety Years opens at the Windsor Castle Drawings Gallery next month.

In the very civilised surroundings of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, Jane Roberts, the Royal Librarian and curator of the exhibition, who has known the Duke for many years, shows me some early family photographs of him as a baby and toddler, loaned from his personal collection, which will open the show.

Born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in Corfu on June 10 1921, the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg was just 18 months old when his family fled from a politically unstable Greece. They settled in Paris, with the young Prince attending Cheam Preparatory School in Berkshire, and later Gordonstoun School in Scotland, before joining the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 1939 to undertake an officer’s training course, where he graduated as the best cadet of his term.

‘I think a lot of people forget what an active and distinguished naval career the Duke had before he gave it up to support the Queen following her accession in 1952,’ says Lady Roberts, who has included several photographs of the Duke as a dashing young naval officer in the exhibition. The Duke, who rose to the rank of Commander, served in the Navy throughout the Second World War and was the First Lieutenant aboard HMS Whelp in Tokyo Bay at the time of the Japanese surrender in September 1945.

One of his most exciting and nerve-racking wartime adventures is detailed in a fascinating exhibit ? the Duke’s handwritten Midshipman’s log book from HMS Valiant, which took part in the Battle of Matapan against the Italian navy off the coast of Greece in March 1941.

As his ship prepared for and engaged in battle, the Duke, then just 19, wrote: ‘The fleet’s steaming east again and the future is still in the dark.

‘Remembering the torpedo-howling attack which we witnessed on Crete, anti-aircraft action stations were closed up just before sunset …reconnaissance aircraft had found three Italian cruisers steaming eastwards in the neighbourhood of Crete… the enemy’s shooting… was getting rather too accurate…’ As the sailor in charge of the ship’s searchlight control, the Duke was later mentioned in Despatches for operating the searchlight during the Night Action.

‘I think the King’s death so early in his marriage was one of the Duke’s biggest disappointments,’ the royal biographer Hugo Vickers tells me. ‘He is a modest man and doesn’t harp on about his naval career, but there is no doubt he would have gone to the top of the Navy on merit.’

Instead, since becoming consort to the Queen, the Duke has supported the careers of others in a variety of fields. One of these is design. The Prince Philip Designers Prize, which was established in 1959, has honoured some of the grandees of British design, including James Dyson, Terence Conran and Norman Foster. ‘But what many people don’t know is that he is a very good designer himself,’ says Lady Roberts.

Opening a blue leather jewellery box, she shows me one of the most beautiful pieces that will go on display ? a gold and gem-studded bracelet designed by the Duke for the Queen to mark their fifth wedding anniversary in 1952, which the Queen has loaned for the exhibition. It is the most personal of the exhibits, shown alongside photographs taken on their honeymoon in 1947 and on their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007, which illustrate an enduring 65-year love affair. Made by the jeweller Boucheron, the bracelet is decorated with the letters E and P entwined, an anchor, York roses, and red, white and blue crosses.

The exhibition will also feature two sets of cufflinks designed by the Duke that were given to members of the support team who accompanied him on two royal tours. One pair feature an anchor, palm trees and what appears to be the Taj Mahal, from the Duke’s 1959 world tour of scientific institutions, which took in India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Borneo.

Another set feature a crown and images of Australia and Antarctica, designed for his world tour in 1956 and 1957, during which he became the first member of the Royal family to cross the Antarctic Circle.

The Duke travelled to Melbourne in Royal Yacht Britannia to open the Olympics in November 1956, where he was joined on board by his friend the artist Edward Seago. To commemorate their Antarctic adventure, and honorary membership of the Order of the Red Nose, for sailors who have crossed the Antarctic Circle, Seago and the Duke designed an linocut print certificate featuring an amusing image of what may be the Duke himself with a red nose, wrapped up against the elements, with a seal and penguin looking on.

The certificate will be accompanied in the exhibition by a photograph of the Duke rolling out the ink over the linocut. Seago wrote in his diary at the time: ‘Prince Philip has really done the design for it although the wardroom asked me, but I must admit his idea is better than what I had in mind! I am amazed at his keenness and energy.’

Seago acted as the Duke’s painting mentor until his death in 1974 and his artistic influence can be seen in another exhibit, an oil painting by the Duke of Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull. The picture, which is thought to date from the Eighties [the Duke never dates his paintings] usually hangs at Balmoral, the Queen’s estate in Aberdeenshire. ‘He still paints, mostly landscapes, I think it delights him and he finds it very relaxing,’ Lady Roberts says.

The exhibition will also feature examples of the Duke’s keen interest in wildlife photography [he is president emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund], including photographs of two marine iguanas resting on a rock and a Booby mid-flight, both taken during a tour to the Galapagos in 1964.

The Duke’s passion for design came to the fore after the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, when a blaze devastated much of the castle’s state apartments, burning the private chapel to the ground. He played a key role in the five-year restoration project and the Duke’s design for a stained-glass window for the new private chapel, where members of the Royal family worship, is another exhibit.

Sketched on a piece of graph paper, it is full of carefully thought-out symbolism ? there is a phoenix rising from the ashes representing the saving of Windsor Castle and the restoration project, and good triumphing over evil in an image of St George slaying a dragon. But the true hero of the stained-glass window is a fireman, depicted by the Duke bravely wielding a hose and grappling with flames.

‘That was a traumatic event and there were several hours when it looked as if the whole castle would go,’ says Lady Roberts, who assessed the damage alongside the Duke. ‘He was there watching them, he witnessed what the firemen did to save the castle, and he wanted to pay tribute to them.’ It is an unexpected and touching gesture from a man who endlessly makes the headlines for his rather blunt turn-of-phrase.

The Duke’s great love of the outdoors is also well documented, most notably in a section dedicated to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which he founded in 1956 to encourage young people to participate in physical pursuits. A photograph of the first expedition in February 1957 shows a group of boys, rucksacks on their backs, gathered outside a house in Buckinghamshire, beaming with the excitement of the adventure ahead.

Since then, more than six million youngsters around the world have taken part in the award, among them David Hempleman-Adams, one of Britain’s greatest adventurers. In a video clip that will go on display, Hempleman-Adams describes finding his taste for adventure as a boy of 13 heading out for his Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition. He talks of how he owes everything to that experience and of how the Duke has subsequently acted as patron of several of his expeditions.

‘He doesn’t just give his name to things, he sets them up and sees them through,’ says Lady Roberts, who also shows me a photograph of the Duke and the Princess Royal, cooking on the barbecue at Balmoral, taken by Lord Lichfield, the favourite royal photographer, in 1972. ‘When they are up at Balmoral, they act as normal people ? to a point,’ she says. ‘Lunch is always outdoors and they are outside every day going on expeditions.’

There are also photographs of the Duke’s former sporting prowess as a keen polo player and a skilled carriage driver, competing in and winning many prizes at the sport’s highest level. Though he no longer competes, he still keeps a team of horses at Windsor. ‘I hope visitors to the exhibition will be impressed by the Duke’s real, personal involvement in the work with which his name is associated, and by his real achievements as a sportsman, patron and supporter of the Queen,’ Lady Roberts says.

While Buckingham Palace may have announced that the Duke will scale back some of his official duties later this year for the 800 organisations of which he is patron, the images of him on Christmas Day striding to church at Sandringham, sprightly as ever, revealed a man still full of energy and purpose.

‘I don’t imagine he’ll be shutting himself away and twiddling his thumbs,’ Lady Roberts says. ‘Just as I doubt the Queen will be winding down any time soon. Together, they make an extraordinary partnership.’

• ‘Prince Philip: Celebrating Ninety Years’ is at Windsor Castle Drawings Gallery from Feb 12 to Jan 22 2012