George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven

Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, GCVO (6 December 1892 – 8 April 1938), born Prince George of Battenberg, styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was a Royal Navy officer and the elder son of Admiral of the Fleet The 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (Prince Louis of Battenberg) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

The Marquess of Milford Haven
BornPrince George Louis Victor Henry Serge of Battenberg
(1892-12-06)6 December 1892
New Palace, Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire
Died8 April 1938(1938-04-08) (aged 45)
London, England
Buried13 April 1938
Bray, Berkshire, England
Spouse(s)
Issue
FatherPrince Louis of Battenberg
MotherPrincess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service1904–37
RankCaptain
Battles/warsFirst World War

Biography

Prince George of Battenberg, as he then was, was born at Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, then ruled by his maternal uncle Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse. From birth, he was a prince of the Hessian royal family, albeit of a morganatic branch. His siblings were Princess Alice (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to whom he was a mentor in Philip's adolescence, a role assumed after his death by his younger brother Louis), Queen Louise of Sweden and Admiral of the Fleet The 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

George followed his father into the Royal Navy, and after passing out from the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1913.[1] He was promoted to lieutenant on 15 February 1914,[2] and served in the First World War. In 1917, his father and several of his relations relinquished their German names, styles and titles in exchange for British peerages at the behest of King George V. Accordingly, Prince George dropped the style of Serene Highness and his surname was anglicised to "Mountbatten." When his father was created Marquess of Milford Haven in late 1917, George received the courtesy title of Earl of Medina, succeeding to his father's peerage after his death in September 1921.

Lord Milford Haven, as George was now, remained in the Royal Navy after the war; he was promoted to lieutenant-commander on 15 February 1922[3] and to commander on 31 December 1926.[4] In 1932, he retired from active service at his own request, with effect from 9 December of that year.[5] On 6 November 1937, shortly before his death, he was promoted to the rank of captain on the retired list.[6]

An accomplished mathematician, the Marquess "could work out complicated gunnery problems in his head" and "read books on calculus casually on trains".[7] Queen Elizabeth II, his niece-in-law, considered him "one of the most intelligent and brilliant of people".[8]

Marriage and issue

Prince George of Battenberg, as he then was, married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby (daughter of Russian Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich Romanov and his morganatic wife, Countess Sophie von Merenberg) on 15 November 1916 at the Russian Embassy, Welbeck Street, London. They lived at Lynden Manor[9] at Holyport in Berkshire and had two children:

Death

Lord Milford Haven died of bone marrow cancer, aged 45, and was buried in Bray Cemetery, Bray, Berkshire.

Legacy to British Museum

Lord Milford Haven left artefacts, including a collection of pornography, to the British Museum.[10][11]

Honours

Arms

Coat of arms of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
Coronet
A Coronet of an Marquess
Crest
1st: 1st: Out of a Coronet Or two Horns barry of ten Argent and Gules issuing from each three Linden Leaves Vert and from the outer side of each horn four Branches barwise having three like Leaves pendent therefrom of the last (Hesse); 2nd: Out of a Coronet Or a Plume of four Ostrich Feathers alternately Argent and Sable (Battenberg)
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Azure a Lion rampant double-queued barry of ten Argent and Gules armed and langued of the last crowned Or within a Bordure company of the second and third (Hesse); 2nd and 3rd, Argent two Pallets Sable (Battenberg); charged on the honour point with an Escutcheon of the arms of the late Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, namely: the Royal Arms differenced by a Label of three points Argent the centre point charged with a Rose Gules barbed Vert and each of the other points with an Ermine Spot Sable
Supporters
On either side a Lion double-queued and crowned all Or
Motto
In Honour Bound
Orders
The shield is surrounded by the Royal Victorian Order circlet, which states VICTORIA

Ancestry

Notes

  1. "No. 28688". The London Gazette. 7 February 1913. p. 960.
  2. "No. 28802". The London Gazette. 17 February 1914. p. 1273.
  3. "No. 32613". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 February 1922. p. 1414.
  4. "No. 33235". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1926. p. 8.
  5. "No. 33890". The London Gazette. 9 December 1932. p. 7833.
  6. "No. 34454". The London Gazette. 12 November 1937. p. 7087.
  7. Hough, p.359
  8. Quoted in Hough, p.360
  9. Lynden Manor Berkshire History
  10. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/23/monarchy.sallyvincent
  11. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/namedcolnprintedmat/namedcolnprintedmatmn/namedcolnprintedmatmn.html
  12. http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/milfordhaven1917.htm, Milford Haven (1917) Cracroft's Peerage. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  13. "No. 30116". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 June 1917. p. 5591.
  14. "No. 30227". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 August 1917. p. 8208.
  15. Metnitz, Gustav Adolf (1953), "Alexander", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 192; (full text online)
  16. Battenberg family at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  17. Franz, E.G. (2005). Das Haus Hessen: Eine europäische Familie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag. pp. 164–170. ISBN 978-3-17-018919-5. OCLC 76873355.
  18. Franz, Eckhart G. (1987), "Ludwig IV.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 15, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 398–400; (full text online)
  19. Weir, Alison (1996). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (Revised ed.). London: Pimlico. pp. 305–307. ISBN 0-7126-7448-9.

References

  • Hough, Richard (1984). Louis and Victoria: The Family History of the Mountbattens. Second edition. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78470-6.
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Louis Mountbatten
Marquess of Milford Haven
1921–1938
Succeeded by
David Mountbatten

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.