After the end of his viceregal tenure, Arthur returned to the United Kingdom and performed various royal duties there and in Ireland, while also again taking up military duties. Though he retired from public life in 1928, he continued to make his presence known in the army well into the Second World War, before his death in 1942. He was Queen Victoria's last surviving son.
Prince Arthur (sitting on the right) with his younger brother, Prince Leopold, c. 1866
It was at an early age that Arthur developed an interest in the army, and in 1866 he followed through on his military ambitions by enrolling at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he graduated two years later and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 18 June 1868.[5] The Prince transferred to the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 2 November 1868 and,[6] on 2 August 1869, to the Rifle Brigade,[7] his father's own regiment, after which he pursued a long and distinguished career as an army officer, including service in South Africa, Canada in 1869, Ireland, Egypt in 1882, and in India from 1886 to 1890.
In Canada, Arthur, as an officer with the Montreal detachment of the Rifle Brigade,[3] undertook a year's training and engaged in defending the Dominion from the Fenian Raids; there was initially concern that his personal involvement in Canada's defence might put the Prince in danger from Fenians and their supporters in the United States, but it was decided his military duty came first.[3] Following his arrival at Halifax, Arthur toured the country for eight weeks and made a visit in January 1870 to Washington, D.C., where he met with PresidentUlysses S. Grant.[3][8] During his service in Canada he was also entertained by Canadian society; among other activities, he attended an investiture ceremony in Montreal, was a guest at balls and garden parties, and attended the opening of parliament in Ottawa (becoming the first member of the royal family to do so),[8] all of which was documented in photographs that were sent back for the Queen to view. On 25 May 1870 he was engaged in fending off Fenian invaders during the Battle of Eccles Hill, for which he received the Fenian Medal.[9]
Arthur made an impression on many in Canada. He was given on 1 October 1869 the title Chief of the Six Nations by the Iroquois of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario and the name Kavakoudge (meaning the sun flying from east to west under the guidance of the Great Spirit), enabling him to sit in the tribe's councils and vote on matters of tribe governance. As he became the 51st chief on the council, his appointment broke the centuries-old tradition that there should only be 50 chiefs of the Six Nations.[10] Of the Prince, Lady Lisgar, wife of then Governor General of Canada Lord Lisgar, noted in a letter to Victoria that Canadians seemed hopeful Prince Arthur would one day return as governor general.[11]
For a brief period of time, after the May Coup that took place in Serbia in 1903, he was among those considered for the vacant Serbian throne after the extinction of the then ruling Obrenović dynasty. His succession was advocated particularly among the conservative anglophile circles, represented most prominently by Čedomilj Mijatović, then Serbian ambassador to the Court of St James's. [22]
Alongside his military career, the Duke continued to undertake royal duties beyond, or only vaguely associated with, the army. He also represented the monarchy throughout the Empire. On the return from a posting in India, he again, this time with his wife, toured Canada in 1890, stopping in all major cities across the country.[10] He also toured Canada in 1906.[26] In January 1903, the Duke and Duchess represented the new King Edward VII at the 1903 Delhi Durbar to celebrate his accession. On their way to India, the couple passed through Egypt where the Duke opened the Aswan dam on 10 December 1902.[27]
Prince Arthur was a Freemason and was elected as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England when his elder brother was obliged to resign the office upon his accession in 1901 as King Edward VII. He was subsequently re-elected an additional 37 times before 1939, when the Prince was nearly 90 years of age.
The Duke of Connaught with the Duchess, his daughter, and his staff in 1913. He served as the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916.
To Canada, Arthur brought with him his wife and his youngest daughter, the latter of whom would become an extremely popular figure with Canadians. The Governor General and his viceregal family travelled throughout the country, performing such constitutional and ceremonial tasks as opening parliament in 1911 (for which Arthur wore his field marshal's uniform and the Duchess of Connaught wore the gown she had worn at the King's coronation earlier that year) and,[31] in 1917, laying at the newly rebuilt Centre Block on Parliament Hill the same cornerstone his older brother, the late King Edward VII, had set on 1 September 1860, when the original building was under construction. The family crossed the country a number of times and the Governor General made another trip to the United States in 1912, when he met with President William Howard Taft.[32]
When in Ottawa, Connaught maintained a routine of four days each week at his office on Parliament Hill and held small, private receptions for members of all political parties and dignitaries. The Duke learned to ice skate and hosted skating parties at his official residence— Rideau Hall— to which the Connaughts made many physical improvements during Arthur's term as governor general. The royal family also took to camping and other outdoor sports, such as hunting and fishing.[33]
In 1914, the First World War broke out, with Canadians called to arms against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Arthur maintained a wider role in the empire— for instance, from 1912 until his death, serving as Colonel-in-Chief of the Cape Town Highlanders Regiment[34]— but the Connaughts remained in Canada after the beginning of the global conflict, Arthur emphasising the need for military training and readiness for Canadian troops departing for war, and giving his name to the Connaught Cup for the Royal North-West Mounted Police, to encourage pistol marksmanship for recruits. He was also active in auxiliary war services and charities and conducted hospital visits. Though well intended, upon the outbreak of the war, Arthur immediately donned his field marshal's uniform and went, without advice or guidance from his ministers, to training grounds and barracks to address the troops and to see them off before their voyage to Europe. This was much to the chagrin of Prime Minister Robert Borden, who saw the Prince as overstepping constitutional conventions.[35] Borden placed blame on the military secretary, Edward Stanton (whom Borden considered to be "mediocre"), but also opined that Arthur "laboured under the handicap of his position as a member of the royal family and never realised his limitations as Governor General."[36] At the same time, the Duchess of Connaught worked for St John Ambulance, the Red Cross, and other organisations to support the war cause. She was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish Canadian Rangers battalion, one of the regiments in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and Princess Patricia also lent her name and support to the raising of a new Canadian army regiment— Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
His term as Canada's Governor General ended in 1916.
Following the war, Arthur commissioned in memory of Canada's fallen a stained glass window which is located in St. Bartholomew's Church, Ottawa, which the family attended regularly.
The Duke also returned to military service and continued well into the Second World War,[40] where he was seen as a grandfather figure by aspiring recruits. The Duchess, who had been ill during their years at Rideau Hall, had died in March 1917, and Arthur mostly withdrew from public life in 1928; his last formal engagement was the opening of the Connaught Gardens in Sidmouth, Devon, on 3 November 1934.
Death
Prince Arthur died on 16 January 1942 at Bagshot Park, at the age of 91 years, 8 months and 16 days, the same age as his elder sister, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, who had died two years and one month before. A funeral service for the Duke was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on 23 January, after which his body was placed temporarily in the Royal Vault beneath the chapel.[41] He was reburied on 19 March 1942 in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.[42] He was Queen Victoria's last surviving son.[43] His will was sealed in Llandudno after his death in 1942. His estate was valued at £150,677 (or £4.9 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).[44]
Legacy
His great-nephew King Edward VIII remembered Prince Arthur in his memoirs:
"His manners were faultless; his courtesy invested his simplest action with dignity and naturalness. I would not have called him a completely happy man. His family life had not been without sadness. As a younger brother and later the uncle and great-uncle of successive Sovereigns he had always had to play second fiddle in the affairs of the Royal Family. Yet, he never shirked the onerous demands made upon his services. As a sponsor of a multitude of national institutions and undertakings he was a distinguished figure in public life. In his personal philosophy, he was urbane, tolerant and wise. Even when I sometimes found myself in rebellion against some of the things of the world of which he was a part, I nevertheless felt that, while he might not necessarily approve the course I had in mind, he would view it in a sympathetic and understanding light."[45]
As a member of the royal family and having been a viceroy, Prince Arthur held a number of titles and styles during his life. He was also the recipient of many honours, both domestic and foreign. He was an active member of the military, eventually reaching the rank of Field Marshal, and served as personal aide-de-camp to four successive sovereigns.
Arms
Coat of arms of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Notes
Prince Arthur was granted a coat of arms with his dukedom, consisting of the escutcheon of the arms of the sovereign in right of the United Kingdom, with a difference of a label argent, of three points, the first and third bearing fleurs-de-lys azure, and the central a cross gules and an inescutcheon of Saxony. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant from King George V.[46]
Adopted
1874
Escutcheon
Quarterly 1st and 4th gules three lions passant guardant in pale or 2nd or a lion rampant gules within a double tressure flory counterflory gules 3rd azure a harp or stringed argent. Overall differenced by a label of three points argent, the central point charged with a St George's Cross, the points dexter and sinister charged with a Fleur-de-Lis azure. Until 1917, an inescutcheon of Saxony (for his father).
Supporters
Dexter a lion rampant gardant or imperially crowned proper, sinister a unicorn argent, armed, crined and unguled or, gorged with a coronet or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lis a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also or.
Banner
Arthur's banner of arms between 1917 and 1942.
(The previous version with the coat of arms of the Royal House of Saxony inescutcheon.)
Symbolism
As with the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom. The first and fourth quarters are the arms of England, the second of Scotland, the third of Ireland.
^King, Greg (2007). Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. p. 59. ISBN978-0-470-04439-1.
^Harrison, Brian, ed. (2004), "Arthur, Prince, first duke of Connaught and Strathearn", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press
^Jane Shuter; Rosemary Rees; William Beinart; Edward Teversham; Rick Rogers (2015). Searching for rights and freedoms in the 20th century. London: Pearson Education Limited. p. 196. ISBN978-1-447-98533-4.
1 Not a British prince by birth, but created Prince Consort. 2 Not a British prince by birth, but created a Prince of the United Kingdom. Princes whose titles were removed and eligible people who do not use the title are shown in italics.
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