Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke

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Prince Alexander of Battenberg, around 1905
Alexander Mountbatten coat of arms from 1917

Alexander Albert Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke , GCB , GCVO , GCStJ (born November 23, 1886 in Windsor Castle , Berkshire as Prince Alexander Albert of Battenberg ; † February 23, 1960 in Kensington Palace , London ) was a British officer in the Royal Navy , member of the Hessian noble family Battenberg and grandson of Queen Victoria .

origin

Bookplate of Henry Badeley which the coat of arms shows, which used Alexander Battenberg as a member of the family until 1917

His father was Heinrich Moritz von Battenberg , son of Alexander von Hessen-Darmstadt and Julia Hauke . His mother was Beatrice of Great Britain and Ireland , the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Prince Alexander was educated at Wellington College and Britannia Royal Naval College .

Prince Heinrich von Battenberg was the child of an organic marriage . Hence his name came from his mother, who was a princess of Battenberg. The salutation of Alexander is His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg , because the salutation Grand Ducal Highness could not be considered due to the organic marriage. Three months after his birth, on December 13th, his grandmother Queen Victoria issued a royal warrant stating that his salutation was His Highness .

He was baptized on December 18, 1886 in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle. His godparents were Queen Victoria, (his maternal grandmother), Alexander von Hessen-Darmstadt (his paternal grandfather), Eduard, Prince of Wales (his uncle), Prince Alexander von Battenberg (his uncle) and Irene von Hessen-Darmstadt (his cousin maternal).

Alexander was brother-in-law of Alfonso XIII. of Spain , since he married his sister Princess Victoria Eugenia in 1906 .

Military service and honors

Prince Alexander passed the qualifying test for Service Cadet in the Royal Navy in March 1902 and entered service in Dartmouth on May 8, 1902 on the cadet training ship HMS Britannia . He served in the Royal Navy until 1908 and reached the rank of lieutenant . In 1910, like his cousins ​​David Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , he joined the Castaways' Club, a dining club of former Navy officers.

In 1909 he switched to the British Army and on August 4, 1909 was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards . On November 22, 1911 the rank was confirmed and on August 15, 1913 he was promoted to lieutenant . He was seconded to the staff and acted there from April 10, 1915 as extra- aide-de-camp . In the same year he was promoted to captain .

In 1910 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order beaten and 1911 to Knight Grand Cross raised the same order. On June 1, 1917, he received the Russian Order of St. Vladimir , 4th grade with swords, for outstanding services to the Allied cause. On June 19, 1919 he was decommissioned and became the General Reserve of Officers in the rank of Captain, starting on July 15, 1915. He received several foreign medals: Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III. (Spain), Order of Leopold with Swords (Belgium), Alexander Nevsky Order (Russia), Order of Naval Merit fourth class (Spain), Order of the Nile (Egypt), Order of the Crown of Romania (Romania) and Croix de guerre with palm trees (France ). In 1927 he was beaten to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath .

During the Second World War, although in his 50s, he joined the Royal Air Force and was promoted to Acting Pilot Officer on June 6, 1941. On August 6, 1941, he was appointed pilot officer and confirmed on June 6, 1942. On August 6, 1942, he was promoted to flying officer. During the war he was a staff officer with Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory . On May 21, 1945, he retired from active service and was retired with the rank of flight lieutenant .

Marquess of Carisbrooke

The anti-German mood during the First World War prompted George V to change the name of the dynasty in July 1917 from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor . He called on his relatives to do the same and to renounce all German titles and salutations.

The Battenberg family gave up their titles Prince and Princess of Battenberg and their Salutations of Highness and Serene Highness on July 14, 1917 . Due to a Royal Warrant, they also took the surname Mountbatten , an Anglicisation of Battenberg . He retained his British knighthood of the Royal Victorian Order, so Prince Alexander became "Sir" Alexander Mountbatten. Four days later, on the eve of his wedding, King George V announced on July 18, 1917, that he would bestow upon Alexander the hereditary peer titles Marquess of Carisbrooke , Earl of Berkhamsted and Viscount Launceston . The certificate of appointment was officially made out on November 7, 1917.

In the 1930s, the author Edward Frederic Benson dedicated two novels to him, Mapp and Lucia and Lucia's Progress.

marriage

On July 19, 1917, he married Lady Irene Denison (July 4, 1890– July 16, 1956), the only daughter of William Francis Henry Denison , 2nd Earl of Londesborough and Lady Grace Adelaide Fane, in the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace . They had a daughter:

  • Lady Iris Victoria Beatrice Grace Mountbatten (January 13, 1920– September 1, 1982), ⚭ (1) 1941–1946 Hamilton Joseph Keyes O'Malley (* 1910), ⚭ (2) 1957–1957 Michael Neely Bryan (1916–1972 ), ⚭ (3) 1965 William Alexander Kemp (1921–1991).

According to Sir Cecil Beaton's published diaries , Mountbatten had a long-time male lover, Simon Fleet.

Late career

Mountbatten, who received no government allowances, was the first member of the royal family to work in the private sector. He started out at Lazard Brothers . Later he worked for a property management company and controlled the tenants' social work. He then became a director at Lever Brothers and other companies.

death

Grave of Princess Beatrice and Prince Heinrich von Battenberg, with the ashes of Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess Carisbrooke, in the wall above.

Mountbatten died at Kensington Palace in 1960 . His ashes were buried in Battenberg Chapel in St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight . His titles lapsed since he had no son after his death.

Salutation (style)

  • November 23, 1886-13. December 1886: His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg
  • December 13, 1886–1917: His Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg
  • 1917: Sir Alexander Mountbatten
  • 1917-1960: The Most Hon The Marquess of Carisbrooke

ancestry

Pedigree of Alexander Mountbatten
Great grandparents Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse-Darmstadt


Princess Wilhelmine of Baden

Hans Moritz Hauke


Sophie Lafontaine

Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha


Princess Luise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn


Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Grandparents Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt


Countess Julia Hauke

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha


British Tudor crown
Queen Victoria

parents Prince Heinrich von Battenberg


Princess Beatrice of Great Britain and Ireland

Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke (1886–1960)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Marquess of Carisbrooke; A Grandson of Queen Victoria . In: The Times , The Times Digital Archive, February 24, 1960. 
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 25655, HMSO, London, December 14, 1886, p. 6305 ( PDF , English).
  3. ^ Queen Victoria's Journals - Saturday December 18, 1886
  4. ^ Naval & Military intelligence . In: The Times , April 22, 1902, p. 12. 
  5. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36763). London. May 9, 1902, p. 10
  6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 28276, HMSO, London, August 3, 1909, p. 5907 ( PDF , English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 28562, HMSO, London, December 15, 1911, p. 9448 ( PDF , English).
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 28752, HMSO, London, September 2, 1913, p. 6236 ( PDF , English).
  9. ↑ London Gazette . No. 29157, HMSO, London, May 7, 1915, p. 4509 ( PDF , English).
  10. ↑ London Gazette . No. 29168, HMSO, London, May 18, 1915, p. 29168 ( PDF , English).
  11. ↑ London Gazette . No. 30108, HMSO, London, November 30, 2012, p. 5433 ( PDF , English).
  12. ↑ London Gazette . No. 31408, HMSO, London, June 17, 1919, p. 7790 ( PDF , English).
  13. ↑ London Gazette . No. 31408, HMSO, London, June 17, 1919, p. 7793 ( PDF , English).
  14. ↑ London Gazette . No. 35208, HMSO, London, July 4, 1941, p. 3834 ( PDF , English).
  15. ↑ London Gazette . No. 35254, HMSO, London, August 22, 1941, p. 4877 ( PDF , English).
  16. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 35809, HMSO, London, December 1, 1942, p. 5279 ( PDF , English).
  17. ↑ a b Obituary: The Marquis of Carisbrooke . In: The Guardian , February 24, 1960. Retrieved February 16, 2015. 
  18. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37179, HMSO, London, July 13, 1945, p. 3669 ( PDF , English).
  19. ↑ a b c London Gazette . No. 30374, HMSO, London, November 9, 1917, p. 11593 ( PDF , English).
  20. ↑ London Gazette . No. 30374, HMSO, London, November 9, 1917, p. 11594 ( PDF , English).
  21. ↑ Cecil Beaton: Beaton in the sixties. The Cecil Beaton diaries as they were written. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2003, ISBN = 0-297-64556-0 ( worldcat.org [accessed May 28, 2020])
personal data
SURNAME Mountbatten, Alexander, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mountbatten, Alexander Albert, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke (full name); Battenberg, Prince Alexander Albert of (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Royal Navy officer and peer
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsor Castle , Berkshire
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1960
Place of death Kensington Palace , London