CaptainPrince Antônio Gastão of Orléans-BraganzaMC (Portuguese: Antônio Gastão de Orléans e Bragança; 9 August 1881 – 29 November 1918) was a Brazilian prince who served in the forces of the British Empire during World War I.
After his grandfather was deposed in a military coup in Brazil, he and his family were sent into exile in Europe. As a child he was chronically sick with bronchitis.[4] He was educated in Paris, and at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.[5] After graduation, he was a Hussar lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army between 1908 and 1914.
When World War I broke out, Antônio was prevented from joining the French armed forces by a law that forbade members of the deposed French royal family from serving in the military.[6] Instead, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Dragoons where he served attached to the Royal Flying Corps as intelligence officer. He was promoted to captain in 1916,[7] and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.[8] He was aide-de-camp to the commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, Brigadier-General Seely,[9] from February 1917[10] until May 1918,[11] and then was seconded for duty with the War Office in July.[12]
Antônio died from injuries sustained in an air crash at Edmonton, London, shortly after the end of the war.[13] His remains were placed in the Royal Chapel of Dreux, in France.[1][9]
^Barman, Roderick J. (2002). Princess Isabel of Brazil: gender and power in the nineteenth century. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources. p. 158. ISBN0-8420-2846-3.
^"No. 29996". The London Gazette. 23 March 1917. p. 2860.
^"No. 30765". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 June 1918. p. 7542.
^"No. 31030". The London Gazette (5th supplement). 26 November 1918. p. 13900. Substituted for notice in "No. 30933". The London Gazette (5th supplement). 4 October 1918. p. 11700.
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