Prince Arthur of Connaught (Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert; 13 January 1883 – 12 September 1938) was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 20 November 1920 to 21 January 1924.
Arthur was the first British royal prince to be educated at Eton College.[citation needed] He was known to his family as "young Arthur" to distinguish him from his father.
Military career
Prince Arthur was educated at Eton College, but left there early to enter the Royal Military College, Sandhurst at the age of sixteen years and two months.[1] From there he was commissioned into the 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars as a second lieutenant in May 1901. He saw his first active posting the following year. After the end of the Second Boer War in June 1902, most of the British troops left South Africa, but the 7th Hussars were posted there to keep the peace. Prince Arthur and 230 men of his regiment left Southampton in the SS Ortona in October 1902,[2] and arrived at Cape Town later the same month. He spent several months stationed at Krugersdorp. In 1905, he became an aide-de-camp to his uncle, King Edward VII. In 1907, he was promoted to the rank of captain in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys). He became the honorary Colonel-in-Chief of this regiment in 1920.
Since the king's children were too young to undertake public duties until after the First World War, Prince Arthur carried out a variety of ceremonial duties at home and overseas. This included opening the Scottish National Exhibition, which was held in Saughton Park, Edinburgh. One of the attractions was the Senegal Village with its French-speaking Senegalese residents, on show demonstrating their way of life, art and craft while living in beehive huts.[3]
Marriage
The wedding day of Prince Arthur of Connaught and the Duchess of Fife
After the accession of his cousin, King George V, Prince Arthur and his father were the most senior male members of the royal family over the age of 18 to reside in the United Kingdom. As such, he undertook a wide variety of royal duties on behalf of the King, and acted as a Counsellor of State during periods of the King's absence abroad.
Prince Arthur of Connaught presenting the Order of the Garter to the Meiji Emperor of Japan
In 1906, by order of the King, Arthur's father vested the Meiji emperor of Japan with the Order of the Garter, as a consequence of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. In 1918, Arthur was a guest aboard the Japanese battlecruiserKirishima when she voyaged from Japan to Canada.[5] He visited Tokyo and then Nagoya and was welcomed at Tsuruma Park and the Buntenkaku, and then traveled on to Kyoto.[6] In 1920, Prince Arthur succeeded Viscount Buxton as governor-general and commander-in-chief in South Africa. The Earl of Athlone succeeded him in these posts in 1924. Upon returning to Britain, Prince Arthur became involved in a number of charitable organizations, including serving as chairman of the board of directors of Middlesex Hospital. Like his father, the Duke of Connaught, he was active in the Freemasons, becoming Provincial Grand Master for Berkshire in 1924.
Prince Arthur of Connaught died of stomach cancer at age 55 on 12 September 1938 at his London home – 41 Belgrave Square, Belgravia, London. His coffin was subsequently taken to the Middlesex Hospital, where Prince Arthur had been the chairman, and his body lay-in-state in the private chapel, with nurses from the hospital keeping vigil. Following his funeral at St George's Chapel, Windsor, on 16 September 1938; his remains were interred in the Royal Vault, beneath St George's Chapel on 22 September 1938. He was later reburied privately in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.[7] His will was sealed in London in 1939. His estate was valued at £109,418 (or £4.9 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).[8] His father, the Duke of Connaught, survived him by four years. Prince Arthur's son, who used the courtesy title Earl of MacDuff after 1917, succeeded his paternal grandfather as 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and Earl of Sussex in 1942, but died the following year.
Honours and arms
Military ranks
2Lt: 2nd Lieutenant, 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars (8 May 1901)
Lt: Lieutenant, 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars (14 January 1903)
Capt: Captain, 2nd Dragoons (The Royal Scots Greys) (27 April 1907)
Bvt Maj: Brevet Major (14 October 1913)
Maj: Major, 2nd Dragoons (The Royal Scots Greys) (19 August 1915)
Bvt LtCol: Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel (3 June 1919)[9]
Retired from active service (31 December 1919)[10]
Hon Maj-Gen: Honorary Major-General (27 October 1920)[11]
Col: Colonel, Reserve of Officers (1 March 1922[12] to 13 January 1938[13])
Colonel-in-Chief: Royal Army Pay Corps, 11 May 1937[32]
Arms
As a male-line grandchild of a British sovereign, Prince Arthur was awarded, on his twenty-first birthday, the use of the royal arms, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony, and differenced by a label argent, of five points, the outer pair and central point bearing crosses gules, and the inner pair fleur-de-lys azure. In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant from George V.[33]
Arthur's banner of arms after 1917, a five-point label, the first, third and fifth points charged with the Cross of St. George, the second and fourth points charged with fleurs-de-lis
Arthur's banner of arms prior to 1917 with the coat of arms of the Royal House of Saxony superimposed on it
^Sir John George Smyth, Sandhurst: The History of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 1741-1961 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961), p. 94
^"Departure of Prince Arthur of Connaught for South Africa". The Times. No. 36893. London. 8 October 1902. p. 8.
^"Saughton Park". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
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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