The Duke of Gloucester | |||||
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Photographic portrait as
Governor-General of Australia (more) |
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Governor-General of Australia | |||||
Tenure | 30 January 1945 – 11 March 1947 | ||||
Predecessor | The Lord Gowrie | ||||
Successor | Sir William McKell | ||||
Born |
York Cottage, Sandringham |
31 March 1900||||
Died | 10 June 1974 Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire |
(aged 74)||||
Burial | 14 June 1974 Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore |
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Spouse | Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott | ||||
Issue | |||||
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House |
Windsor (after 1917) Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (before 1917) |
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Father | George V | ||||
Mother | Mary of Teck | ||||
Occupation | Governor-General of Australia, military |
Full name | |
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Henry William Frederick Albert |
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, KG, KT, KP, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was the third son of King George V and Queen Mary.
He was the first son of a British monarch to be sent to school, where he excelled at sports, and went on to attend Eton College, after which he was commissioned in the 10th Royal Hussars, a regiment he hoped to command. But his military career was interrupted by royal duties, and he was ironically nicknamed ‘the unknown soldier’. While big-game shooting in Kenya, he met the future aviator Beryl Markham, with whom he became romantically involved. The court put pressure on him to end the relationship, but had to pay regular hush-money to avert a public scandal. In 1935, also under parental pressure, he married Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, with whom he had two sons.
In 1939-40, he served in France as a liaison officer, and was later appointed Governor-General of Australia in place of his brother, the Duke of Kent, who had died in an air crash. He attended the coronation of his niece Elizabeth II in 1953, and carried out several overseas tours, often accompanied by his wife. From 1965, he became incapacitated by a number of strokes, and was not officially told of the death of his elder son while piloting his own plane in 1972. His widow became the longest-lived member of the British Royal Family in history.