by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Prince Arthur of Connaught was the only son and the second of the three children of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Princess Luise Margarete of Prussia. He was born at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England on January 13, 1883, and was christened Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert on February 16, 1883, at the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle. His godparents were:

• Queen Victoria (his paternal grandmother)
• The German Empress (his great-great-aunt, born Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach)
• Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia (his maternal uncle)
• Princess Henry of the Netherlands (his maternal aunt, born Princess Marie of Prussia)
• Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (Queen Victoria’s first cousin)
• Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (his paternal uncle)

Prince Arthur had two sisters:

• Princess Margaret of Connaught (1882-1920), married Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (1882-1973), had issue, Margaret died before her husband became King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, had five children
• Princess Patricia of Connaught (1886-1974), married The Honorable Alexander Ramsay (1881-1972), had issue, upon her marriage Patricia voluntarily relinquished her title of Princess and her style Royal Highness and was known as Lady Patricia Ramsay, had one son

Arthur began his education at home with governesses and tutors. He was the first British prince to attend Eton College. After finishing Eton College, Arthur received his military education at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars on May 8, 1901. Like his father, Arthur had a military career. He was on active duty during the Second Boer War. During World War I, Prince Arthur served as aide-de-camp to General Sir John French and General Sir Douglas Haig.

He held the following ranks in the British Army:

• Lieutenant, 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars (1903)
• Captain, 2nd Dragoons (The Royal Scots Greys) (1907)
• Brevet Major (1913)
• Major, 2nd Dragoons (The Royal Scots Greys) (1915)
• Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel (1919)
• Retired from active service (December 31, 1919)
• Honorary Major-General (1920)

When his first cousin King George V succeeded to the British throne in 1910, Prince Arthur and his father The Duke of Connaught were the most senior male members of the British Royal Family over the age of 18 who were living in the United Kingdom. Therefore, Prince Arthur undertook a wide variety of royal duties on behalf of King George V and acted as a Counsellor of State when King George V was out of the United Kingdom.

On October 15, 1913, at the Chapel Royal of St. James’ Palace in London, Arthur married her first cousin once removed, Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife. Alexandra was the eldest surviving child of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and a grandchild of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.  In 1900, when it became apparent that the Duke and Duchess of Fife were unlikely to have a son to inherit the title, Queen Victoria issued the Duke of Fife a new Letters Patent as Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This Letters Patent gave the second dukedom of Fife a special remainder that allowed the dukedom to pass to the daughters of the 1st Duke of Fife, if he had no son, and then to the male heirs of his daughters. Therefore, Alexandra became heir to her father’s dukedom.

Alexandra’s mother was the eldest daughter of King Edward VII and was created Princess Royal during her father’s reign, in 1905.  At the same time, Alexandra and her sister Maud were granted the title of Princess with the style of “Highness” and received precedence immediately after all members of the royal family bearing the style of “Royal Highness.” This act was unprecedented and when the College of Arms told King Edward VII it could not be done, the King simply said, “Do it!”  Alexandra and Maud’s maternal uncle, the future King George V, was greatly disturbed by this act.

Because Alexandra’s father had died the year before her wedding, her uncle King George V, gave her away. After her marriage, Alexandra was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Arthur of Connaught, Duchess of Fife.

Arthur and Alexandra had one son Alastair Arthur, born on August 9, 1914, at his parents’ home at 54 Mount Street, in Mayfair, London, England. As a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria through the male line, Alastair was styled His Highness Prince Alastair of Connaught until he was three years old.  At that time King George V restricted the titles of Prince/Princess and the style of Royal Highness to the children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign’s sons, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. Alastair was then styled with the courtesy title Earl of Macduff, his mother’s secondary title.

Prince Arthur was Governor-General of South Africa from 1920 – 1923. After his return to the United Kingdom, he supported several charitable organizations, including serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Middlesex Hospital. Like his father, Arthur was an active Freemason and served as Provincial Grand Master for Berkshire in 1924.

On September 12, 1938, Prince Arthur died of stomach cancer at the age of 55. He was first interred at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and then was transferred to the Royal Burial Ground in Frogmore, Windsor, England in 1939. As Prince Arthur predeceased his father The Duke of Connaught, Arthur’s son Alastair became heir to the dukedom.

In 1942, upon the death of his paternal grandfather Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, Alastair succeeded him as the 2nd Duke of Connaught. On April 26, 1943, while on active duty with the British Army in Ottawa, Canada, the 28-year-old Alastair fell asleep or passed out in front of an open window, fell out the window, and died of hypothermia during the night. On his death, his titles became extinct.

Alexandra survived her husband Prince Arthur for nearly 21 years, dying at her home in London on February 26, 1959, at the age of 67. She was buried at St. Ninian’s Chapel in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, located on the grounds of the Mar Lodge Estate, where her parents are buried.

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