Viktor zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Viktor Ferdinand Franz Eugen Gustav Adolf Constantin Friedrich Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg GCB (born November 11, 1833 in Langenburg , † December 31, 1891 in London ) was a German nobleman and British admiral, sculptor, artist and watercolor painter.
Youth and education
Viktor was the third son of Prince Ernst I. zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1794-1860) and his wife Princess Feodora zu Leiningen (1807-1872). His mother was Queen Victoria's half-sister. The family was therefore closely related to the British royal family. Born at Langenburg Castle , he spent the first 14 years of his life at home until he was sent to the Blochmann Institute in Dresden with his two brothers in 1847 .
Service in the Navy
After his training, he moved to the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Navy as an officer in 1848 . In 1854 he was promoted to lieutenant . He served as a lieutenant in 1855 under Captain Henry Keppel on the HMS St. Jean d'Acre in the Mediterranean. In 1856 he commanded the gunboat HMS Traveler for a few months after its commissioning. He then served again under Keppel on HMS Raleigh in East India and China until the ship was wrecked near Macau in 1857. In 1856 he was recommended for the Victoria Cross for his service in China during the Second Opium War . He was promoted to commander in 1857 and commanded the sloop HMS Scourge in the Mediterranean. Promoted to captain in 1859 , he took command of the 21-gun corvette HMS Racoon from 1863 to 1866, during which time the second son of Queen Victoria, Prince Alfred , later the Duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900) Bord served as a lieutenant.
He retired from active service in 1866 and was named Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath that same year and promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the same Order in 1887 . In retirement, he was in December 1876 in the rank of Rear-Admiral on November 23, 1881 to, Vice-Admiral and on May 24, 1881 to Admiral promoted.
Activity as an artist
After retiring from active naval service, he worked as an artist, in particular as a sculptor.
He died in London in 1891 and was buried in Sunningdale, Berkshire .
Marriage and offspring
He married Laura Wilhelmina Seymour, the younger daughter of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour (1787-1870), under whom he had served on the HMS Cumberland in the 1850s, on January 24, 1861 in London in a morganatic marriage . Shortly before the marriage, his wife was raised to Countess von Gleichen by Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Gotha , after Burg Gleichen , which was once owned by a branch of the Hohenlohe family. After his wife's brother had inherited the title of 5th Marquess of Hertford in 1870 , she received on February 7, 1871 in the United Kingdom the formal status of the daughter of a marquess with the courtesy address "Lady". Viktor called himself Graf von Gleichen (or in the United Kingdom Count Gleichen ) since the marriage . He only used his German title "His Highness Viktor Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg" again when his wife was given the right to use her husband's prince title on December 15, 1885 from Queen Victoria, at least in the British Empire .
They had four children:
- Lady Fedora Georgina Maud Gleichen (1861–1922);
- Lord Albert Edward Wilfred Gleichen (1863–1937), Major-General in the British Army , ⚭ Hon. Sylvia Gay Edwardes;
- Lady Victoria Alice Leopoldine Ada Laura Gleichen (1868–1951) ⚭ 1905 Percy Wilfred Machell;
- Lady Helena Emily Gleichen (1873-1947).
His children also carried the German title Graf and Countess von Gleichen. During the First World War , they renounced the title of Count and the German “von” in their family name in 1917 and in return received the protocol status of children of a marquess with the courtesy address “Lord” or “Lady”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles Mosley (Ed.): Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage . Volume 2, Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, Wilmington 2003, p. 1886.
- ↑ London Gazette . No. 30551, HMSO, London, March 1, 1918, p. 2632 ( PDF , English).
literature
- Detlev Schwennicke (Ed.): European family tables . Volume 17, Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1998, plate 9.
Web links
- State bibliography of Baden-Württemberg
- Viktor Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg on thepeerage.com
- Count Gleichen (Prince Victor FFEGACF Hohenlohe-Langenberg) RN at pdavis.nl
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Viktor to |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Viktor Ferdinand Franz Eugen Gustav Adolf Constantin Friedrich Prinz zu (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British admiral, sculptor, artist and watercolourist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 11, 1833 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Langenburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 31, 1891 |
| Place of death | London |