Gleichen's comital title, shared by his sisters, derived from his mother, who had received it from Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, shortly before her morganatic marriage to his father. Gleichen had been an hereditary estate of the Princes of Hohenlohe in Germany since 1631, and their father voluntarily used it as a comital title to place himself on the same social footing as his wife. But Edward was not entitled to any land or revenues derived from this dynastic property.
On 15 December 1885, the Court Circular announced Queen Victoria's permission for Edward's mother to share his father's rank at the Court of St James's, and henceforth they were known as TSH Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. But the Queen did not extend that privilege to their children, although she confirmed use of their German style as count and countesses. On 12 June 1913 Edward was granted precedence before marquesses in the peerage of England (while his sisters were granted precedence before the daughters of dukes in the English peerage).[1]
Career
Gleichen served as a Page of Honour to the Queen from 1874 to 1879.
He was Sudan agent in Cairo from 1901 to 1903 with the local rank of lieutenant colonel,[4] then military attaché to Berlin from 1903 to 1906. He and Kaiser Wilhelm II fell out, and Gleichen was sent to be military attaché in Washington D.C. from 1906 to 1907. He met the Wright brothers while in Washington and wrote a report on their aircraft, but also failed to form a relationship with U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt. He was assistant director of military kperations from 1907 to 1911.
The doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade, August 1914 to March 1915 (1917)
London's open air statuary (1928)
A Guardsman's Memories (1932).
He was the editor of:
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: a compendium prepared by officers of the Sudan Government - Vol. I: Geographical, descriptive and historical. - 1905. Vol.II: Routes.- 1905. Suppl.: 1906
Change of title
When King George V commanded his German relatives domiciled in Britain to Anglicize their names and titles in 1917, the Gleichens' 1913 precedence was reduced several grades to that of younger son/daughters of a marquess in the peerage of the United Kingdom.[9] This was because only marquisal rank was conferred upon the King's nearer, heretofore princely relatives, the Tecks and Battenbergs. Although inexplicably allowed to retain their German surname, the Gleichens relinquished use of the comital title and on 12 September 1917 acquired the prefix of Lord or Lady, although this was not made hereditary for Edward's descendants as his countship had been.[9]
On 2 July 1910, Gleichen married Sylvia Gay Edwardes (a niece of the 4th Baron Kensington), who was a maid of honour to Queens Victoria and Alexandra. They had no children. He is buried at Holy Trinity Church burial ground, Forest Row, Sussex, England.
In her memoirs, his sister Lady Helena Gleichen described a sad incident that happened at Overstone Hall. A "particularly nice" butler named Atkins tried to learn how to swim in the nearby lake, but disappeared. Lord Edward dived after him numerous times, but was unable to save him. In the end, his body was retrieved.[10]
