Prince Arthur,
Duke of Connaught

Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert was born 8:20 am 1st May 1850.  The seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria.  By all accounts he was her favourite son.

Prince Arthur was a career soldier and rose in rank, being promoted in 1902 to the rank of Field Marshal.

He entered the Royal Military College, Woolwich, in 1867 and started his career as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He spent a year with his regiment in Montreal, and served on the Red River expedition of 1870 - early connections with the country he was to return to as Governor-General.

After serving with the Rifle Brigade at Tell-el-Kebir in 1882, he served in India, Ireland, the Mediterranean and South Africa.  At least for some of his time in India he was stationed in Meerut. Anil Bhattacharji has written to me from that town to say that the grand building that housed the Duke at that time is now a bank (details and a photo part way down this Meerut page)#595 It was while at Meerut that army officer Robert Baden-Powell was attached to the Duke's staff. Two decades later Baden-Powell would found the Boy Scouts and in 1913 the Duke was appointed President of the association.

It is reported that the Duke was bitterly disappointed not to succeed the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief in 1895.


classic Victorian style family portrait with 2 adults and 3 childrenNamed Duke of Connaught in 1874 (or more precisely, the 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn), he married Princess Louise, the shy daughter of Prince Frederick of Prussia, in 1879. They had two daughters and one son.

In 1905 their elder daughter, Margaret, married into the Swedish Royal family and became Crown Princess Margaret, wife of King Gustav VI of Sweden.

Their younger daughter, Princess Patricia, is well known to Canadians as Lady Patricia Ramsay, and gave her name to a famous Canadian army regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Lady Patricia lived locally and worshipped at St Anne's Church until her death in 1974.  A memorial plaque to Lady Patricia was unveiled by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, in St Anne's Church, Bagshot, on 25 March 1990. [pictures]

Their son, also Prince Arthur of Connaught, died four years before his father and so never inherited the title, which passed to the Duke's grandson Alistair Arthur, 2nd Duke of Connaught.  He was was Duke for only a very short while, dying in 1943 at the age of 29 without any successors.  More about Prince Arthur.

A family tree is here.

A predominantly red and gold banner with lions and a harp

The Duke's personal banner bearing his coat of arms which hung over his stall as a Knight of the Garter in St George's Chapel, Windsor, until his death. 

The Duke served as Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916, he performed many civic duties, he clearly had a great affinity for the country and was very popular. Many Canadian places and institutions were named after him, including Prince Arthur's Landing, now Port Arthur; and The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own).  There is more about the Duke in Canada below.

It is not just Canadian places that are named after him. At risk of a boring list of attributions, the following are among those that came to light in researching this page:

It is reported that the Duke was heavily involved in German affairs. This would not be too surprising as his father (Prince Albert of Coburg), his maternal grandmother and his wife were all German.  One might speculate that the reason for an eminent Field Marshal being posted to Canada in 1911 may have been to distance him from the military aspects of a deteriorating German situation.

The Duke was, in 1926, Godfather at the Christening of Princess Elizabeth of York, now far better known as our present Queen. He was Her Majesty's great great uncle.

The Duke was a freemason.  He became Grand Master in 1901 when his brother, who had held that post for the previous 27 years, acceded to the Throne as King Edward VII.  The Duke served as Grand Master to his death in 1942.

He was Patron of many organisations, one local one being the Royal Albert Orphan School.  More about this.

elderly man in jodpuhs, tunic top and old-type scout hatYet to be added to this page:

The Duke of Connaught in Canada

As noted above the Duke had many associations with Canada and was Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916, but his association with the country predates that.

Rose A Belle writes: "I have recently discovered a picture of Prince Arthur during a hunting expedition in 1872 near Otter Lake, Quebec. My great grandfather, Francois Lavigne, was the cook on the expedition and is pictured crouching over a deer next to Prince Arthur." Aug10

The Duke of Connaught in Malta

It never ceases to amaze me that the Duke got to so many places around the world, not only visited them but had a sufficient impact that places and organisations were named after him - and live on today.

Michael has written to me from Malta telling me about the Duke of Connaught's Own band - another example of the Duke's memory living on.  But Michael has not been able to find out much about the Duke's activities on Malta.  Do you know?

A lady has written: "I have enjoyed the music of the Duke of Connaught's own band, Malta 2005. My grandfather was in The Connaught Rangers and served in Malta 1889-1895 so I am drawn to any connection like that. Maybe the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London could help Michael about the Duke's activities in Malta."

Bob has written "Attached to the Floriana Methodist Church in Malta was a building known as "The Connaught Home", a sort of hostel / meeting place where people who attended the church, and others who did not, used to get together. There is a picture of it at www.scienceandsociety.co.uk. This has a caption which implies that this was the home of the Duke, although I had always assumed that "home" meant that it had been a home for sailors, not that the Duke had lived there. The significance of "The Connaught" to my wife and me, and quite a few other couples we know, is that it is where we met (in 1961). Of other places with the name Connaught - in Sidmouth where we now live, is a Connaught Gardens, opened by the Duke in 1934. Before that we lived at Sunninghill, just up the road from Bagshot, so wherever we go, we seem to be close to a Connaught influence. But as you say - he certainly seems to have got around a bit, judging by the number of places in which his name crops up!" 7004.107

From Ann Lyon "When I lived in Malta in 1968-71 I was in the 19th Malta (Floriana) Company of the Girl Guides, based at Connaught House. I cannot now remember what it looked like, but it may well have been the same building as 'the Connaught Home'. It was also the meeting place of the local Scouts and other such organisations." xii8

More about the Duke and Meerut

Asad Ullah Khan  has written to say "The Duke, while at Meerut where he commanded a regiment, had come to know my maternal great grand father Wazir Muhummed Khan who was deputy collector there. His son Said Muhammed Khan went to England to be trained at Scotland Yard in 1928. He mentions in his autobiographical pamphlet "RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD ALIGARIAN" that while in London he availed the opportunity of paying his respects to the Duke -  who had a vivid memory of his stay at Meerut and "Received me graciously'." {Apr 11}

Duties & presentations

Presenting awards will have been part-and-parcel of the life of a person in the Duke's position.

Struan writes: My grandfather Sgt T Vickers was presented with the Colonel's prize in the Regimental Carbine competition of the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles in 1897 by General HRH The Duke of Connaught KC. We still have the award. Apr 13

The Duke as MC at a Wedding?

An enquiry from Malcolm Camp intrigued me. "My grand father's cousin Fances Maude Camp (or Scamp) married Emert John Garrod (born 1874) in 1902. The Duke of Connaught was master of ceremony's as Emert's father John Garrod was head of the Duke's stud farm. Was this at Bagshot Park and what became of the Bagshot Garrods?".   {Feb11}

A little digging revealed more questions than answers -  I could find nobody by the name of Garrod in Bagshot in the 1901 census, nor any Emert Garrod in that census. I had seen nothing to indicate that the Duke was into racing let along breeding, and it seemed to me unlikely that the Duke would have officiated at the wedding of one of his employees' children.  We must all recognise that family legend is liable to get corrupted, but this 'event' is relatively recent and engrained in some detail, so it seems unlikely that it is a fanciful fabrication. Can you throw any light on it? Might it have been the Duke's son Prince Arthur who had a Stud Farm?
Norma spotted this enquiry and, by looking for alternative spellings, identified the marriage record which gives the groom's Christian name as Ernest rather that Emert . She also found the bride in the 1901 census - but could not find a good fit for the groom.  She wrote:

The marriage of Ernest John GARROD to Frances Maud CAMP was in the Registration District of Hampstead in the July to September quarter of 1902 (ref Vol 1a Page 1535).

On the 1901 census Frances M CAMP was aged 26, a housemaid to James G. LORRAIN and family at 14, Primrose Hill Road, Hampstead. She was born in Walsham, Suffolk.

There is an Ernest GARROD aged 19, with a father John, on the 1901 census at 23, Aylesbury Street, Newington, but the father was a Stationers Packer and Ernest was a Paper Warehouse Packer. The father, John, was from Suffolk, the same county as Frances CAMP.

Alternately, there is an Ernest aged 23 (thus born about 1877) on the 1901 census, living in Hampstead, who was a Billiard Marker, living with his parents Robert & Elizabeth and siblings. Robert was a Domestic Coachman, and was also from Suffolk. I have not found Ernest and Frances on the 1911 census.

I have looked in the Times Newspaper Archives (available through our local library) but cannot see any reference to this marriage, which presumably would have made the news headlines if the Duke of Connaught was Master of Ceremonies. I've also looked on the New Zealand & Australian Newspaper Archives, free to access online at http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast and http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper as they have lots of reports from the English Newspapers, and, the dates they cover extend further than the 19th Century Newspapers, which we can access through our library, at home, as well as the Times. {Apr 11}

Further research has indicated that the Garrod and Scamp / Camp families were not local to Bagshot, that the groom's name was Ernest (Emert being a mis-transcription by an agency who put data onto the Internet) who described himself on the Marriage Register as a 24 year old Hotel Servant, and that his father was Robert, a coachman.

I think this enquiry has run its course, but I will leave the text here because it provides an excellent example of the issues one needs to be aware of when researching family history. In addition to Norma's excellent advice about being able to find UK newspaper reports via Australia and New Zealand. At the risk of appearing to deliver one of my lectures, we must recognise that family memories can get mixed up, that not all records are reliable and transcription errors do occur. As we build up a picture of the past all we can ever say is "it seems likely that...", we must always be prepared to re-examine the data and to change our opinion. Single pieces of evidence are never enough, we need to look for independently corroborating evidence. [Sep 11]

Don has written in asking if anyone knows what the Duke was doing 1894-1900 as he is interested in his (then) A.D.C. John G.H.H.De La Poer BERESFORD. {Jan11}
Also from Norma, "There are numerous newspaper reports on the De La Poir Beresford family, including one from the New Zealand newspaper Marlborough Express dated 25th October 1895 whereby they report that John Henry de La Poer Beresford, the Marquis of Waterford committed suicide with a revolver, owing to long suffering illness. Maybe the Newspaper Archive sites mentioned above will yeild some interesting reports" {Apr 11}

The Duke's car?

Vincent writes: Some 12 years ago I purchased a 1937 Austin 14/6 Goodwood Registration FGO 111. The information that came with the car states that its first owner was Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught and Strathern. Unfortunately the tax book is a continution one and not the car's first registration book, it was either lost or retained by someone as a momento. The car has a number of special features that would indicate that someone of importance had owned it. On top of the chrome radiator surround a purpose made chrome bracket has been made and fitted to carry a flag or coat of arms. the upholstery is generally Bedford Cord but the drivers seat is leather suggesting a cheafeaur drove the car and that the leather would wear better. There is a grab handle on the inside of passenger door to provide assistace/support for an elderly person. Also there are silk window blinds and there is a purpose built clothes trunk in the boot. If there is any link at all I believe the car registration holds it. The letters FGO were issed in South East London in the late 1930's and I think they were specifically chosen to reflect FROGMORE and Arthur being the third son the obvious choice would have been 111.

What I am therefore trying to establish is if any of your contributors has any information that would confirm if Prince Arthur was the first owner of the FGO 111.  [Dec 11]

Paul Lacey is interested in another of the Duke's cars, writing "I am seeking a photograph and the registration number of the Rolls Royce car used by the Duke up to his death in 1942."  Please reply via the message pad. [Oct 12]

Meddy has written "My grandfather was driver and engineer for the Duke of Connaught and also had a French driving licence for the Duke's visits to France. We have photos of him and the first car etc but not the one asked for here." [Apr 13]

I have more about Bagshot Park including some about staff in service there.

There is an encyclopdia entry about the Duke here.

 

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