Queer Places:
Windsor Castle, 3 The Cloisters, Windsor SL4 1NJ
Wellington College, Duke's Ride, Berkshire, Crowthorne RG45 7PU, UK
St Mildred, Whippingham, Beatrice Ave, East Cowes PO32 6LW, UK
Alexander
Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke, GCB,
GCVO, GCStJ (born Prince Alexander of
Battenberg; 23 November 1886 – 23 February 1960) was a British Royal Navy
officer, a member of the Hessian princely Battenberg family and a grandson of
Queen Victoria. According to the published diaries of
Cecil Beaton, in his
later years Lord Carisbrooke had a longtime male lover,
Simon Fleet.[21]
More is written about Lord Carisbrooke and his wife in the published diaries
of James
Lees-Milne.
Prince Alexander was born in 1886 at
Windsor Castle in
Berkshire
and was educated at
Wellington College and at the
Britannia Royal Naval College.[1]
His father was
Prince Henry of Battenberg, the son of
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and
Julie née Countess of Hauke. His mother was
Princess Henry of Battenberg (née The Princess Beatrice), the fifth
daughter and the youngest child of Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert.
Prince Henry of Battenberg was the product of a
morganatic marriage and took his style of Prince of Battenberg from
his mother, Julia von Hauke, who was created Princess of Battenberg in her own
right. At his birth, Alexander was styled
His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Battenberg because the child
of a morganatic marriage is ineligible for "Grand-Ducal Highness" status.
However, three weeks after his birth, on 13 December 1886, he was styled
His Highness under a
Royal Warrant passed by his grandmother Queen Victoria.[2]
He was baptised in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle on 18 December
1886. His godparents were
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, (his maternal grandmother),
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (his paternal grandfather), the
Prince
of Wales (his maternal uncle),
Prince Alexander of Battenberg (his paternal uncle), and
Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (his maternal first cousin).[3]
Prince Alexander was the brother-in-law to King
Alfonso XIII of Spain, who married Alexander's sister, Princess
Victoria Eugenia, in 1906.
Prince Alexander passed a qualifying examination to become service cadet in
the
Royal Navy in March 1902,[4]
and subsequently joined the cadet training ship
HMS Britannia at
Dartmouth on 8 May 1902.[5]
He served in the Royal Navy from 1902 to 1908[1]
and in 1910, became one of the earliest members of
The Castaways' Club, an exclusive dining club for Naval officers who
resigned whilst still junior but who wished to keep in touch with their former
service. Several of his Mountbatten cousins were also subsequently members,
including the
Marquess of Milford Haven and
Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1909, he joined the
British Army, being appointed Second Lieutenant (on probation) in the
Grenadier Guards on 4 August 1909.[6]
He was confirmed in the rank on 22 November 1911,[7]
and was promoted to Lieutenant on 15 August 1913.[8]
He was seconded to the staff to act as an extra aide-de-camp on 10 April 1915[9][10]
and promoted to captain the same year.
On 1 June 1917, he was authorised to wear the insignia of the Russian
Order of St Vladimir, fourth class with Swords, awarded "for distinguished
service to the Allied cause."[11]
He resigned his commission on 19 June 1919[12]
and was placed on the General Reserve of Officers, ranking as a Captain with
seniority of 15 July 1915.[13]
He held several other foreign orders and decorations: Grand Cross of
Order of Charles III (Spain),
Order of Leopold, with swords (Belgium), Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky
(Russia), Order of Naval Merit, fourth class (Spain),
Order of the Nile (Egypt),
Order of the Crown (Romania), and
Croix de guerre, with palms (France).
During World War II, despite being in his mid-fifties, the Marquess joined
the
Royal Air Force and was commissioned an
acting pilot officer on 6 June 1941.[14]
On 6 August, he was regraded as a
pilot officer (on probation).[15]
He was confirmed in his rank on 6 June 1942 and was promoted to
flying officer (war-substantive) on 6 August 1942.[16]
During the war, he was a staff officer attached to
Air Chief Marshal Sir
Trafford Leigh-Mallory.[17]
He relinquished his commission on 21 May 1945, retaining the rank of
flight lieutenant.[18]
Anti-German feeling during the
First World War led
George V
to change the name of the
Royal House in July 1917 from the
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the
House of Windsor. He also relinquished, on behalf of his various relatives
who were British subjects, the use of all German titles and styles.
The Battenberg family relinquished their titles of Prince and Princess
of Battenberg and the styles of Highness and Serene Highness.
Under
royal warrant, they instead took the surname Mountbatten, an
Anglicised form of Battenberg. As such, Prince Alexander became Sir
Alexander Mountbatten.[19]
On 7 November 1917, he was created
Marquess of Carisbrooke,
Earl of Berkhamsted and
Viscount Launceston.[20]
In the 1930s, author
E.F. Benson dedicated two of his famous novels,
Mapp and Lucia and Lucia's Progress, to the Marquess of
Carisbrooke.
On 19 July 1917, he married
Lady Irene Denison (4 July 1890 – 16 July 1956), the only daughter of the
2nd
Earl of Londesborough and
Lady Grace Adelaide Fane, at the
Chapel Royal of
St James's Palace.
Lord and Lady Carisbrooke had one child, a daughter:
-
Lady Iris Mountbatten (13 January 1920 – 1 September 1982)
Lord Carisbrooke, who received no state allowance, became the first member
of the British royal family to work in the commercial sector. He began his
career working as an entry-level clerk in the offices of
Lazard Brothers
bankers. He later worked for a company that oversaw housing estates, and
before long he took control of social work for the tenants.[17]
Later he became a director of
Lever Brothers and several other prominent corporations.[17]
Lord Carisbrooke, the last surviving grandson of
Queen Victoria, died in 1960, aged 73, at
Kensington Palace, and his ashes were buried within the Battenberg Chapel
in
St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the
Isle of Wight. The title Marquess of Carisbrooke became extinct upon his
death.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mountbatten,_1st_Marquess_of_Carisbrooke