Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn

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Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1913)
Queen Victoria with Prince Arthur (painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter , 1850)
Prince Arthur in the Anglo-Egyptian War, 1882 (painting by Carl Rudolf Sohn )
Prince Arthur around 1900

Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn - fully HRH Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn - KG , KT , KP , GCMG , GCSI , GCIE , GCVO , GCB , GBE , PC (* May 1, 1850 in Buckingham Palace , London ; † January 16, 1942 in Bagshot Park , County Surrey ) was the son of Queen Victoria a member of the British royal family and from 1911 to 1916 Governor General of Canada . He was a British field marshal and fought in various British colonial wars. He came from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Adolescence

Arthur was the son of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Arthur was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , who was also one of his godparents. As the Queen's son, he was born his Royal Highness The Prince Arthur . He was his mother's favorite son, due on the one hand to his great physical resemblance to his father Prince Albert and on the other hand to his clear mentality and character difference to his eldest brother, the bon vivant and later King Edward VII. Arthur was more conscientious and conscientious and disciplined.

Raised by private tutors, Arthur entered the Royal Military Academy Woolwich in 1866 , where he was made a lieutenant after two years . Arthur served first with the pioneers , then with the artillery, and then with the infantry in the Rifle Brigade .

Military career

During his long military career in the British Army , the Duke of Connaught served in various parts of the British Empire . In 1870 he was in Canada during the Red River Rebellion . In 1882 he took part in the Anglo-Egyptian War under General Wolseley to suppress the Urabi movement in Egypt . On September 13, he led the Guard Brigade in the decisive battle of Tel-el-Kebir . From 1886 to 1890 he served in India .

On April 1, 1893, he was promoted to general and in command of the Aldershot District Command . Arthur's hope to succeed his great cousin Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge , as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army , was not fulfilled, despite his forced resignation in 1895. On June 26, 1902, Arthur was appointed field marshal ; then he served as Commander-in-Chief in Ireland (1900-1904), Inspector General (1904-1907) and Governor General in Canada (1911-1916).

progeny

On March 13, 1879 Arthur married a great niece of Kaiser Wilhelm I , Princess Luise Margareta of Prussia , daughter of Field Marshal Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia (1828-1885) and Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau (1837-1906). The couple had three children:

Prince Arthur with his wife Luise Margareta of Prussia and their three children (1893)

Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

In 1899 Arthur's nephew, Hereditary Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , the son of Arthur's older brother, Duke Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, died . Arthur would have been the Duke's immediate successor but decided to cede his claim to the duchy as well as his son's. This was then given to the eight-year-old son of their brother Leopold Georg, who died in 1884 , Duke of Albany , Carl Eduard, 2nd Duke of Albany , who succeeded Alfred von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha in 1900.

Governor General of Canada

In 1911 Arthur was appointed Governor General of Canada by the British government. During his tenure, the Prime Minister of Canada, Robert Borden , made significant strides in transforming the British colony into an independent state. To strengthen ties between the British monarchy and Canada, the British government sent Arthur, a member of the British royal family, to Canada for the first time.

Arthur traveled to Canada with his wife, the Duchess of Connaught, and daughter Patricia. They lived at Rideau Hall in Ottawa and traveled extensively in Canada.

The Connaught Tunnel in the Rocky Mountains, opened in 1916, and the Connaught Building in Ottawa were named after him.

First World War

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Arthur and his family stayed in Canada. He emphasized the need for military training for Canadian troops and gave his name to the Connaught Cup of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to improve the gunsmithing skills of Canadian recruits with this competition.

During the war, he served in various relief services and led hospital visits, while his wife worked for the Red Cross and other organizations. She was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish Canadian Rangers Battalion , one of the regiments of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces . Her daughter Princess Patricia gave her name to a newly formed regiment, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

Next life

After his tenure in Canada ended, Arthur returned to the British Army to serve for the remainder of the war. The Duchess, who had already fallen ill during her stay in Canada, died in March 1917. Arthur retired from public life in 1928 and died on January 16, 1942 in Bagshot Park at the age of 91. The title Duke of Connaught and Strathearn went, since his only son had died in 1938, after his death to his son Alastair . He died a year later, on April 26, 1943. Since he was childless, the title Duke of Connaught and Strathearn expired .

Titles and awards

title

  • HRH The Prince Arthur
  • HRH The Duke of Connaught

medal

Designations

According to him, Prince Patrick Iceland named in the Northwest Territories.

literature

Web links

Commons : Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg Army Corps for 1914 , Ed .: War Ministry . Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 388.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Earl of Sussex
1874-1904 		Alastair Windsor
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts Commander-in-Chief Ireland
1900–1904 		Francis Grenfell


personal data
SURNAME Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arthur, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Duke of Saxony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Field Marshal, member of the British Royal Family, Governor General of Canada (1911-1916)
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Buckingham Palace
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1942
Place of death Bagshot Park