The Duchess of Teck and her family c. 1880; Prince Alexander sits centre with his arm around the Duchess, Princess Mary (later Queen Mary) is seated at far right
Prince Alexander of Teck was born at Kensington Palace on 14 April 1874,[5] the fourth child and third son of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. Although his mother was a granddaughter of King George III and first cousin to Queen Victoria, Athlone, as the son of a prince of Teck in Württemberg, was styled from birth as His Serene Highness and held the title Prince Alexander of Teck.[5][6] He was known, however, to his family and friends as Alge, derived from the first two letters of Alexander and George,[7] and was characterised as a meticulous individual with a quick, but short-lived, temper and an ability to be cautious and tactful.[7]
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Prince Alexander, who had been promoted to major in January 1911 and was a brevet lieutenant-colonel commanding the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards,[16] was nominated by the British Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith to serve as Governor General of Canada. However, the Prince was called up for active service with his regiment.[17] taking him to battle in France and Flanders. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, with the temporary rank of brigadier-general, in December 1915.[18] For his service on the battlefields, in June 1917 Prince Alexander was appointed by his brother in law, King George V, as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.[19]
During the war, anti-German sentiment throughout the British Empire led the King to change the name of the royal house from the Germanic House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more English House of Windsor, while simultaneously renouncing all Germanic titles for himself and all members of the Royal Family. Through a royal warrant issued on 14 July 1917, Alexander, along with his brother, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Teck, similarly relinquished all of his German titles, styles, and honours, choosing instead the name of Cambridge, after his grandfather, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge.[20] Alexander was then known simply as Sir Alexander Cambridge (being entitled to the honorific Sir through his knighthoods in the Royal Victorian Order and the Order of the Bath), until, on 7 November 1917, the King created him Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon.[21] Athlone had declined a marquessate, as he thought the title did not sound British enough. Athlone's wife retained her royal style and title, while their surviving children became the Lady May Cambridge and Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon. Rupert was to inherit the title of Earl of Athlone, but he died on 15 April 1928 following a car crash, ten days shy of his twenty-first birthday, meaning the third creation of the title became extinct with the death of the first earl.
Post-war career and Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
Following the cessation of hostilities in Europe in 1918, Athlone was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel in June 1919, and retired from the army that November, with the honorary rank of brigadier-general.[22][23] He took up posts in the civilian world, continuing at Middlesex Hospital. Because of his experience there, he was appointed in 1921 to chair an investigative committee on the needs of doctors. Known as the Athlone Committee, its work resulted in the creation of post-graduate schools for medical education and research,[7] such as the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. In March 1922, he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Regular Army Reserves, retaining his honorary rank of brigadier-general,[24] and, in 1937, was appointed chair of a committee of inquiry into the arrangements for "recruitment, training and registration and terms and conditions of service" for nurses.[25]
In the ensuing election—the running of which forced Athlone to cancel the planned tour of Prince Edward, Prince of Wales[28]—the National Party won a majority of seats in the House of Assembly, meaning Athlone appointed the party's leader, James Barry Munnik Hertzog, as his new prime minister. At the time, Afrikaner nationalism was increasing in the dominion, and Hertzog was a republican who promoted the secession of South Africa from the British Empire. As such, he proposed the country adopt its own flag over the Union Flag. Athlone, however, proved sympathetic and tactful, and resolved the issue by advancing a flag that was unique to South Africa, but which still contained the Union Flag within it, despite opposition from numerous Afrikaners. He also gained popularity with South Africans of all races through his frequent tours of the country,[7] performing a number of ceremonial duties, including opening Pioneers' Park in Johannesburg.[29]
In 1937 he led the Ministry of Health and Board of Education Interim Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Nursing Services, also known as The Athlone Report. It looked at nursing recruitment, retention and skills and included Dame Ellen Musson[33]
In January 1939, Athlone was appointed president of The Football Association.[34] The move represented the first time the FA had appointed someone that was not a football administrator to the position.[35]
Governor General of Canada
The Earl of Athlone (seated right) with (left to right) Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, US President Roosevelt, and UK Prime Minister Churchill, at La Citadelle, August 1943The Earl of Athlone and his wife, Princess Alice, followed by Prime Minister Mackenzie King at the State Opening of Parliament, 6 September 1945
In Canada in the late 1930s, there had been calls from government circles and the media alike for the King to appoint a Canadian-born individual as governor general. However, with the rush to fill the post after the unexpected death (on February 11, 1940) of the incumbent viceroy, Lord Tweedsmuir, and with the country embroiled in the Second World War, Canadian prime ministerWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King advised King George VI that the time was not right for such a change in viceregal tradition.
Instead, it was George's uncle, the Earl of Athlone, whose name Mackenzie King put forward and the Earl accepted.[37] Subsequently, Athlone, along with his wife and his aide-de-camp, Alastair Windsor, Earl of Macduff,[n 1][38] voyaged to Canada to take up his position, their liner using a submarine-evading zig-zag pattern across the Atlantic Ocean to Halifax, Nova Scotia.[39] After travelling on to Ottawa by train, Athlone was sworn in during a ceremony in the Senate chamber on 21 June 1940. The Athlones' three grandchildren, Anne, Richard, and Elizabeth (children of their daughter May), lived with them in Canada for the duration of the war.[40]
Athlone immediately made himself active in the support of the war effort, travelling across the country and focusing much of his attention on the troops, either those training at military facilities or those injured and in hospital. Viewing his position as governor general as a link between Canadians and their monarch, Athlone also communicated in speeches that the King stood with them in their fight against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.[32]
It was Athlone's duty to play host at Quebec City to his prime minister, still Mackenzie King, as well as Churchill and President of the United StatesFranklin D. Roosevelt, who all gathered to take part in what would become known as the Quebec Conferences, with the first taking place between 17 and 24 August 1943 at the viceregal residence in La Citadelle, and the second occurring from 12 to 16 September 1944 at the Château Frontenac. It was at these meetings that the four men discussed the Allied strategies that would eventually lead to victory over Nazi Germany and Japan. When Germany fell on 8 May 1945 and Japan on 15 August of the same year, Athlone led the national celebrations held on Parliament Hill and elsewhere. He thereafter spoke in speeches about Canada's future being marked not by war but by a strong role in reconstruction and reconciliation.[32]
During his time as the Canadian viceroy, Athlone also lent his status to various charitable and other social events, and mounted a number of activities of his own, such as tobogganing parties and skating lessons on the grounds of Rideau Hall, as well as skiing in Gatineau Park. When he departed Canada at the end of his time as the King's representative, Athlone left as a legacy the Athlone Fellowship, awarded by the Engineering Institute of Canada.[32]
Post-viceregal life
Bust of the Earl of Athlone, Senate House, University of London.
After Lord Athlone's replacement as governor general was appointed on 21 March 1946, he returned to the United Kingdom to retirement, taking up residence again in a grace and favour apartment at Kensington Palace and, on 1 September of that year, resigning as colonel of the 7th Queen's Own Hussars.[43] He did not completely remove himself from public activity, however, and was, along with his Canadian viceregal successor, Lord Alexander of Tunis, appointed to the committee charged with organising the coronation in 1953 of Athlone's great-niece, Queen Elizabeth II,[44] and continued to sit as Chancellor of the University of London until 1955.[32]
The Earl of Athlone died at Kensington on 16 January 1957 at the age of 82, and was interred in the Royal Vault at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 19 January before being transferred to the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore on 15 May 1957.[45] He was the last surviving great-grandchild of George III.
Coat of arms of Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone
Crest
A Dog's Head and Neck lozengy bendy sinister Sable and Or, langued Gules, a Crescent Argent, for difference. Coronet of an earl.
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st & 4th grand-quarters, The Royal Arms as borne by a son King George III, differenced by a Label of three-points Argent, the centre point charged with a Cross Gules, and each of the other points with two Hearts in pale Gules; 2nd & 3rd grand-quarters, Or, three Stags' Attires fesswise in pale, the points of each Attire to the sinister Sable, impaling Or three Lions passant in pale Sable, langued Gules, the dexter forepaws Gules; over all an Inescutcheon lozengy bendy sinister Sable and Or (Teck); Over all at the fess point a Crescent Sable for difference.
Supporters
Dexter: a Lion Sable, the dexter forepaw Gules, differenced on the shoulder by a Crescent Argent. Sinister: a Stag Proper, differenced on the shoulder by a Crescent Argent.
^Galbraith, William (1989), "Fiftieth Anniversary of the 1939 Royal Visit"(PDF), Canadian Parliamentary Review, 12 (3), Ottawa: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association: 7–9, archived from the original(PDF) on 14 March 2011, retrieved 14 December 2009
^ abcEilers, Marlene A. (1987). Queen Victoria's Descendants. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. p. 215. ISBN978-0-938311-04-1.
^ abcdCokayne, G. E.; et al. (2000). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. Vol. XIII. Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 258. ISBN978-0-904387-82-7.
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