The Life of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: Part II

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Dartmouth, George II of Greece, lieutenant, Prince Philip, Royal Navy, World War ii

Military Career

After leaving Gordonstoun in early 1939, Philip completed a term as a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, then repatriated to Greece, living with his mother in Athens for a month in mid-1939. At the behest of the Greek king, George II (his first-cousin), he returned to Britain in September to resume training for the Royal Navy. He graduated from Dartmouth the next year as the best cadet in his course.

During the Second World War, he continued to serve in the British forces, while two of his brothers-in-law, Prince Christoph of Hesse and Berthold, Margrave of Baden, fought on the opposing German side. Philip was appointed as a midshipman in January 1940. He spent four months on the battleship HMS Ramillies, protecting convoys of the Australian Expeditionary Force in the Indian Ocean, followed by shorter postings on HMS Kent, on HMS Shropshire, and in British Ceylon. After the invasion of Greece by Italy in October 1940, he was transferred from the Indian Ocean to the battleship HMS Valiant in the Mediterranean Fleet.

On February 1, 1941, Philip was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant after a series of courses at Portsmouth, in which he gained the top grade in four out of five sections of the qualifying examination. Among other engagements, he was involved in the battle of Crete, and was mentioned in dispatches for his service during the battle of Cape Matapan, in which he controlled the battleship’s searchlights. He was also awarded the Greek War Cross. In June 1942, he was appointed to the destroyer HMS Wallace, which was involved in convoy escort tasks on the east coast of Britain, as well as the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Promotion to lieutenant followed on July 16, 1942. In October of the same year, he became first lieutenant of HMS Wallace, at 21 years old one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Royal Navy. During the invasion of Sicily, in July 1943, as second in command of Wallace, he saved his ship from a night bomber attack. He devised a plan to launch a raft with smoke floats that successfully distracted the bombers, allowing the ship to slip away unnoticed. In 1944, he moved on to the new destroyer, HMS Whelp, where he saw service with the British Pacific Fleet in the 27th Destroyer Flotilla.

He was present in Tokyo Bay when the instrument of Japanese surrender was signed. Philip returned to the United Kingdom on the Whelp in January 1946, and was posted as an instructor at HMS Royal Arthur, the Petty Officers’ School in Corsham, Wiltshire.

Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Part III. Conclusion.

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Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Ernst II, Grand Duchess Maria, Malta, Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Royal Navy, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh

Flag rank

Alfred was stationed in Malta for several years and his third child, Victoria-Melita, was born there in 1876. Promoted rear-admiral on December 30, 1878, he became admiral superintendent of naval reserves, with his flag in the corvette HMS Penelope in November 1879.

Promoted to vice-admiral on November 10, 1882, he became Commander-in-Chief, Channel Fleet, with his flag in the armoured ship HMS Minotaur, in December 1883. He became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, with his flag in the armoured ship HMS Alexandra, in March 1886, and having been promoted to admiral on October 18, 1887, he went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in August 1890. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on June 3, 1893.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Percy Scott wrote in his memoirs that “as a Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Edinburgh had, in my humble opinion, no equal. He handled a fleet magnificently, and introduced many improvement in signals and manoeuvring.” He “took a great interest in gunnery.” “The prettiest ship I have ever seen was the [Duke of Edinburgh’s flagship] HMS Alexandra. I was informed that £2,000 had been spent by the officers on her decoration.”

Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On the death of his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on August 22, 1893, the duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since his elder brother (the Prince of Wales) had renounced his right to the succession before he married. Alfred thereupon surrendered his British allowance of £15,000 a year and his seats in the House of Lords and the Privy Council, but he retained the £10,000 granted on his marriage to maintain Clarence House as his London residence. At first regarded with some coldness as a “foreigner”, he gradually gained popularity. By the time of his death in 1900, he had generally won the good opinion of his subjects.

Alfred was exceedingly fond of music and took a prominent part in establishing the Royal College of Music. He was a keen violinist, but had little skill. At a dinner party given by his brother, he was persuaded to play. Sir Henry Ponsonby wrote: ‘Fiddle out of tune and noise abominable.’

He was also a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and his collection, valued at half a million marks, was presented by his widow to the Veste Coburg, the enormous fortress on a hill top above Coburg.

Later life

Alfred and Maria’s only son, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and apparently shot himself in January 1899, in the midst of his parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations at the Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha. He survived, but his embarrassed mother sent him off to Meran to recover, where he died two weeks later, on February 6, His father was devastated.

The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg died of throat cancer on July 30, 1900 in a lodge adjacent to Schloss Rosenau, the ducal summer residence just north of Coburg. He was 55 years old and was buried at the ducal family’s mausoleum in the Friedhof am Glockenberg in Coburg.

He was succeeded as the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by his nephew, Prince Charles-Edward, Duke of Albany, the posthumous son of his youngest brother, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.

He was survived by his mother, Queen Victoria, who had already outlived two of her children, Alice and Leopold. She died six months later.

August 6, 1844: Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Part I.

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Assassination, Duke of Edinburgh, Melbourne Australia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Royal Navy, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; August 6, 1844 – July 30, 1900) reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire.

Early life

Prince Alfred was born on August 6, 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

Prince Alfred

Alfred remained second in line to the British throne for twenty years, from his birth until January 8, 1864, when his older brother Albert-Edward and his wife Alexandra of Denmark had their first son, Prince Albert-Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and as Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred moved further down the line in the order of succession.

Entering the Royal Navy

In 1856, at the age of 12, it was decided that Prince Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy. A separate establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with Lieutenant J.C. Cowell, RE, as governor. He passed the examination in August 1858, and was appointed as midshipman in HMS Euryalus at the age of 14.

In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape Colony, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs. He took part in a hunt at Hartebeeste-Hoek, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of game animals.

On the abdication of King Otto of Greece, in 1862, Prince Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but the British government blocked plans for him to ascend the Greek throne, largely because of the Queen’s opposition to the idea. She and her late husband had made plans for him to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (Parents)

Prince Alfred, therefore, remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on February 24, 1863, serving under Count Gleichen on the corvette HMS Racoon. He was promoted to captain on February 23, 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate HMS Galatea in January 1867.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours on May 24, 1866, the Prince was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent, with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament. He took his seat in the House of Lords on June 8.

While still in command of the Galatea, the Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on January 24, 1867 for his voyage around the world. On June 7, 1867, he left Gibraltar, reached the Cape of Good Hope on 24 July and paid a royal visit to Cape Town on August 24, 1867 after landing at Simon’s Town a while earlier.

The Duke of Edinburgh

He landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on October 31, 1867. Being the first member of the royal family to visit Australia, he was received with great enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania. Adelaide school Prince Alfred College was named in his honour to mark the occasion.

On March 12, 1868, on his second visit to Sydney, he was invited by Sir William Manning, President of the Sydney Sailors’ Home, to picnic at the beachfront suburb of Clontarf to raise funds for the home. At the function, he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by Henry James O’Farrell.

Alfred was shot just to the right of his spine and was tended for the next two weeks by six nurses, trained by Florence Nightingale and led by Matron Lucy Osburn, who had just arrived in Australia in February 1868. In the violent struggle during which Alfred was shot, William Vial had managed to wrest the gun away from O’Farrell until bystanders assisted.

Vial, a master of a Masonic Lodge, had helped to organise the picnic in honour of the Duke’s visit and was presented with a gold watch for securing Alfred’s life. Another bystander, George Thorne, was wounded in the foot by O’Farrell’s second shot. O’Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on April 21, 1868.