Arthur Collins (courtier)

Arthur Collins CB, MVO, Commander, Hohenzollern Order (26 June 1845 – 21 November 1911), was Equerry and Comptroller for Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's 4th daughter and Gentleman Usher in the households of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. He attended Princess Louise in her role as the wife of John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll (at that time Marquis of Lorne), who was Governor General and Vice Regent of Canada between 1878 and 1883. Collins represented Princess Louise at the funerals of Lord Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, and William Ewart Gladstone, the two competing Prime Ministers during Queen Victoria's reign. Collins attended as a Gentleman Usher the coronation of King Edward VII and probably Victoria's funeral.

Collins was born on 26 June 1845, in Berkshire to Reverend John Ferdinando Collins (1812–1889) and Sarah Hawthorne Collins (1809–1906), who was born in Jamaica. His father was Landed Proprietor Curate of Lockinge, and served Lord Wantage, whose estate contained one of the ancient Anglo-Saxon sites in England. The Collinses lived at Betterton House, Lockinge, "an estate which had descended from father to son since the time of Henry VI" and which passed into the hands of Baron Wantage on the death of Collins's father in 1889.

Collins was the seventh of eight children: John Ferdinando (1837–1910), Henry (1839–1914), Charles (1841–1907), Robert Hawthorne, K.C.B., K.V.C.O. (1841–1908), Emley Jane, later Emily (1842–1900), Fanny Katherine (1844–1850), Arthur and Francis (1851–1878). Robert was tutor to the Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, living in Windsor Castle, and later comptroller and equerry to the Duke and, after his death, to the Duchess of Albany.

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