Authors: Dennis Friedman
‘My Dear Prince George, – It is just a week today since you left us and you cannot think how much I miss your dear face, the place don’t look the same. I used to look at the vacant bed in your dear room at M. House. I scarcely knew what I was doing, but am so pleased to hear from Mr Dalton that you are so happy and quite settled down to your new life.’ His brother (Eddy), older men (senior officers) and an ever-present mother (Queen Mary) were all to have a significant effect on Prince George’s later life.
Princess Alexandra, trying desperately to let go of her younger son, wrote a ‘farewell’ letter to Prince George which was less concerned with loosening the bond that tied him to her than with consoling her own anguish at being parted from him. On 12 June, less than two weeks after her son’s naval appointment but some weeks before he actually embarked on HMS
Canada,
she wrote:
My own darling little Georgie, I have only just left you going to bed, after having given you my last kiss and having heard you saying your prayers. I need hardly say what I feel – and what we both feel at this sad hour of parting – it will be harder for you this time to go quite by yourself – without Eddy, Mr Dalton or Fuller – but remember darling when all others are far away God is always there – and He will never forsake you – but bring you safe back to all of us who love you so.
Having probably made her son feel guilty at leaving her, Princess Alexandra went on:
I need hardly say my darling little Georgie
how
much I shall always miss you – now we have been so much together and you were such a dear little boy not at all spoilt and so nice and affectionate to old Motherdear – Remain just as you are – but strive to get on with all that is good – and keep out of temptation as much as you can – don’t let anyone lead you astray – Remember to take the Sacrament about every quarter which will give you fresh strength to do what is right – and also never forget either your morning or evening Prayer – We must all try to console ourselves by thinking how quickly the year will pass and what delight it will be to meet once more … And now darling Georgie I must say Goodnight and Goodbye as I am so sleepy my eyes will hardly keep awake and it is nearly two – So goodbye and God bless you and keep you safe and sound till we meet again and watch over you wherever you are – Goodbye, goodbye Georgie dear
Ever your most loving affectionate old Motherdear.
Princess Alexandra’s six (royal) commandments, as spelled out in her letter to her son, would have reinforced his punitive conscience to the extent that he would have either found it impossible to live with and rebelled (as did Eddy) or have ingested the imperatives of obedience and duty his mother had instilled into him and used them not only to control those under his command in the Navy but also those ‘under his command’ (his children) as a result of his marriage. Continuing to climb the career ladder, Prince George was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant. He obtained a first class in seamanship, left HMS
Canada
after a year’s service and transferred to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich where he again did well in his examinations and passed well in torpedo, gunnery, navigation and pilotage. While he was at Greenwich Captain Bernard Currey was appointed Deputy-Governor and Captain Durrant wrote to him to inform him of his duties
vis-à-vis
the Prince:
My Dear Currey, – During your stay at the RN College, Greenwich, with HRH Prince George, it is the wish of the Prince of Wales that you should consider yourself as Prince George’s companion and friend, to whom he may always come for advice and assistance, and also you will kindly give that advice unasked if you see any occasion for so doing.
It is His Royal Highness’s wish that Prince George should not leave the neighbourhood of the College except to join in such sports as are undertaken by the members of the college as a body – or on the occasions that he will go from Saturday to Sunday evening to visit at such places as will be especially approved by the Prince of Wales (of which you will be notified), and His Royal Highness hopes that you will accompany Prince George at these times – unless some well known friend is accompanying him. All expenses of every description that you may incur for Prince George or whilst going anywhere with him will be defrayed, and I shall be obliged if you will let me have the account of them monthly. Any letters addressed to the Governor of HRH Prince George you will be so good as to open and forward to me with your opinion, if they concern any local matters, so that I may reply to them; the same will apply to any letters addressed to Prince George (after he has seen them) which may require answering, as it will not be desirable that His Royal Highness should answer them himself. It will not be advisable that Prince George should accept any invitations to balls, dinners etc., while he is studying at the College without the sanction of HRH the Prince of Wales.
Bearing in mind that the Prince was still only nineteen years old and, furthermore, third in line to the throne, the degree of protection afforded him by such ‘fathers’ as Captain Durrant and later Captain Currey (later Admiral Currey), would not in the 1880s be considered excessive. What was excessive was the Prince’s transfer of affection to these and other older men, which during a critical period in his early development would have been more appropriately directed to his father. Never having been accustomed to an easy and carefree relationship with his own father, Prince George’s deference to surrogate fathers would have left him with
an unhealthy respect for authority and, by extension, authoritarianism. By the time he became a father himself he often demanded the blind obedience that had been demanded of him from his sons, to a degree they sometimes found it impossible to satisfy.
The Prince’s next posting was to the
Thunderer,
in January 1886, under the command of Admiral Sir Henry Stephenson, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Once again entrusting his son to a stand-in, Prince Edward prepared the then Captain Stephenson for his arrival. He wrote to him in May 1885: ‘The command you have received is a most interesting one, but be assured that I shall not forget the wish expressed by you that my second son should serve in a ship under your command, and that there is nothing I should like better, as I feel assured that he could not be in better hands.’ What better hands are there for a son than those of his father? In their absence Admiral Stephenson would have to do. In January 1886 Prince Edward reinforced his message. ‘I feel that in entrusting my son to your care I cannot place him in safer hands, only don’t
spoil
him
please!
… he
must
be kept up to his work, as
all
young men of the present day are inclined to be lazy.’ Was Prince Edward aware that when his son had most need of a father he himself had not been there? And, in his insistence on other ‘fathers’ caring for him and their being strict with him, might he be attempting to alleviate his own guilt at his failure to be a father to his son?
Despite the enthusiasm with which it seemed that Prince George enjoyed his career, shore leave was invariably welcomed. In February 1886, while he was serving in the Mediterranean, his father took him for a short holiday to Cannes. At the end of his leave the Prince left by train to rejoin his ship in Naples. Parting was still a problem not only for him but also for Prince Edward. Known to be increasingly dependent on stimulation, he never found it easy to give anything up. He also had been left in need of loving input from anyone who could provide it. He had usually no problems in this respect. His great wealth, his power and his ability to reward those who pleased him with social advancement – which cost him nothing but which was of inestimable value to their recipients – ensured that he would never be short of ‘friends’. What may have surprised him
was how much he depended on the love of his children. Unable to understand the nature of this need, he would have been unlikely to recognize such a need in others, not least in his son. After their brief holiday together Prince George and his father wrote letters to one another which crossed in the post. The theme of the letters was identical: ‘I miss you.’ In a letter to his son written on 5 March 1886, Prince Edward comments: ‘On seeing you going off by the train yesterday, I felt very sad & you could I am sure see that I had a lump in my throat when I wished you goodbye.’ His son’s letter to him two days later also emphasized the sense of loss experienced at their moment of parting: ‘My dearest Papa, I cannot tell you how I miss you every minute of the day, because we have been together so much lately.’ The more accurate underlying message that Prince George was giving his father was that highlighting their feelings of separation lit up the fact that they had not been together consistently earlier. Neither of them had been loved appropriately or for long enough when they were children, when it mattered most. Prince George’s homesickness, far from being a sign of protracted adolescence, represented his continuing need for a home that had failed to provide him with sufficient hands-on parenting. This was difficult to achieve when he had been sent away from it at the age of twelve.
When he parted from his father in Cannes he was also leaving some of the companions in his father’s party with whom he had grown up. One such was Julie Stonor. Miss Stonor’s mother, Mrs Francis Stonor, had been one of Princess Alexandra’s ladies-in-waiting. When she died her two orphaned children, Julie and Harry, had more or less been brought up with the Princess’s children (which Princess Alexandra felt to be her duty). Prince George had become fond of Julie and during her frequent visits to Sandringham with her brother he had seen a good deal of her. Surprisingly Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra did not disapprove of their son’s ‘romance’. They were pleased in fact that they would be able to supervise (and presumably control) its development. Prince George’s parents believed that his friendship with Julie Stonor would distract him from forming disreputable liaisons with other women while he was away from home.
Having spent so much time together when they were young, however, Prince George and Julie were more like brother and sister and it is doubtful whether there would have been a sexual element in their relationship. It had been made perfectly clear to Prince George that nothing must come of their ‘romance’, since Julie was not only a commoner but a Catholic. None the less, the Prince missed Julie when he left the Côte d’Azur to rejoin HMS
Alexandra.
As he became older he found, like his father, that giving up anything (or anybody) was difficult. It was at about this time that he started to collect postage stamps which, given his passion for letter-writing, was not surprising. He and Julie exchanged warm letters and they remained good friends. Five years later Julie married the Marquis d’Hautpoul.
Prince George, now aged twenty-one, having had a taste of female friendship, began to think in terms of marriage. Unfortunately all the available European Princesses were too young, and he was moderately concerned that no suitable partners seemed to be available. On 21 October 1886 he wrote to his mother but spoke only of his concern for the marriage plans for his brother Eddy, who was being pressed by Queen Victoria to marry a German Princess, an idea to which Prince George and his Danish mother were opposed. All the granddaughters of Queen Victoria who might have been suitable were too young to be thinking of marriage, and Prince George continued to focus his attention on his naval duties.
While serving in the Mediterranean fleet, Prince George became close to his uncle, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, his father’s younger brother. The Duke of Edinburgh was in command of the
Alexandra,
the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet and also commander-in-chief on the Mediterranean Station. When Prince George took shore leave in Malta he stayed with the Duke of Edinburgh and his family. They became close friends and shared a common interest in stamps. Prince George was to see more of his uncle the following year when he joined his flagship as a full lieutenant. The 22-year-old Prince found himself attracted to his uncle’s elder daughter, Princess Marie, who at the time was only
thirteen. The attraction was not mutual, however, and when Marie was sixteen she became engaged to, and later married, Prince Ferdinand, heir presumptive to King Carol I of Romania. Within the limits of his circle Prince George managed to become attracted to two girls only, the first was unsuitable and less interested in him than he was in her and the second only thirteen years old.
In 1887 Prince George returned to London for the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The Jubilee was an excuse for a grand reunion of European Royalty, most of them directly related to Queen Victoria and the remainder indirectly related through the marriage of Princess Alexandra to Prince Edward. Those attending the celebrations included members of the Royal Houses of Denmark, Norway, Russia, Greece, Prussia, Portugal, Austria and of the several Royal Houses of Germany. Although Prince George knew that a suitable princess would sooner or later be chosen for him, he must have hoped that he would at least have an opportunity to preview those who were available. Since he had already established that most of his first cousins were not of marrying age, and most of his second cousins were already well known to him – and in any event his older brother, as the heir, had prior claim – he would have entertained no real hope of meeting his bride at any of the celebrations. Although he was unaware of it, one of the guests at several of the parties, the twenty-year-old Princess May of Teck – daughter of Prince Francis, First Duke of Teck, and HRH Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, Queen Victoria’s first cousin – was, within six years, to become his bride.
O
N
4 N
OVEMBER
1891 Queen Victoria summoned Princess May of Teck to Balmoral Castle to be considered as a wife for Prince Eddy, known as the Duke of Clarence and Avondale since his return from India the previous year. Princess May’s feelings must have been mixed. She could have been in no doubt as to the nature of the summons and would have liked nothing more than to be the Queen of England. But there were two problems she would have to face. The first was her dislike of her cousin Eddy and the second was his lack of interest in her. Brought up in Kensington Palace, Princess May had known Prince Eddy and the other Waleses, since they had all played together as children. She had preferred the company of Prince Eddy’s brother Prince George and his three sisters, rather than Eddy whom she had thought of as ‘stupid, immature and a bully’.