SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, HIS HIGHNESS
CHRISTIAN VICTOR, PRINCE OF, Captain and Brevet Major, was born on 14 April,
1867 at Windsor Castle, son of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, KG,
GCVO, General in the British Army, and grandson of Queen Victoria. He was
educated at Wellington College; at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the Royal
Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the Army in August 1888, as a Second
Lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifles (60th Foot). He saw a great deal of
active service. He was on General Elles's Staff, as his Orderly Officer, in
the Black Mountain Expedition in January 1891, and was mentioned in
Despatches. In April of the same year he served in the Miranzai Expedition,
under General Sir William Lockhart, with his battalion, the 1st King's Royal
Rifles. He also took part in the second Black Mountain Expedition (Hazara),
and served under Sir Francis Scott, in the Ashanti Expedition, being present
at Koomassi when King Prempeh and the Queen Mother made submission to the
English Governor, Mr Maxwell. He was promoted, and received the Brevet
Majority in recognition of his services in India and Ashanti on the 11th December 1896. He took
part in the South African War; and for his services in that campaign was
created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 19
April, 1901]: "His Highness Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein,
Captain and Brevet Major, King's Royal Rifles". He was a Knight Grand Cross
of the Order of the Bath and of the Royal Victorian Order, and had the Indian
Frontier Medal, the Ashanti Expeditionary Medal, the Egyptian and Khedival
Medal, the South African Medal, and two Jubilee Medals, and belonged to the
Order of St John of Jerusalem, as well as several foreign Orders. He was an
excellent cricketer, and just failed to get his 'Blue' at Oxford. A
Memoir of Prince Christian Victor was written by T Herbert Warren, MA,
President of Magdalen College, Oxford, entitled, 'Christian Victor, The Story
of a Young Soldier'. The book brings clearly before us the picture of the
clever yet painstaking and absolutely dependable boy who was Captain of the
Wellington Eleven, and just missed his place in the Oxford Eleven by the skin
of the teeth. He played cricket in every sense of the word, and his
biographer says of him: "The Prince did not want naturally for steadiness and
solid qualities. Possibly some of his love of fair play, his cheery tolerance
of all sorts and conditions of men, and good-tempered patience when luck was
against him, may have been enhanced by the discipline of his favourite game.
He certainly drew his own metaphors from it, as when he wrote from Natal, in
the letter already quoted, 'The Boers played up awfully well in the first
innings, but since then our own game has been improving'. A noticeable and
delightful trait in Prince Christian Victor's character, was his objection to
having anything given to him which he felt he had not fairly earned on his own
merits. At school, at Oxford, at Sandhurst, and in the Army, he never wanted
any favours or promotions which might come his way because he was Queen
Victoria's grandson. He seems to have possessed much of the charm of manner,
shrewdness, business capacity and sound common sense which distinguished his
uncle King Edward VII. A strong sense of religion, which was none the less
real because he did not wear it on his sleeve, was with him throughout his
life until his death in South Africa, when he died fortified indeed by the
rites of the Church of England and the presence of many friends, but far away
from the parents and sisters he loved so tenderly. He faced death with
uncomplaining courage, as he had several times previously faced it on the
battlefield, even amid the storm of shrapnel and hail of bullets at Colenso.
For he would not be taken care of because he was a prince. As a boy at school
he did not love reading, indeed, his father once wrote to his son's House
Master, the Reverend C W Penny: "It is my constant complaint during the
holidays that, I never see him open a book. I trust, however, that he will
try to do better when the great question is settled and regain the lost
ground". 'The great question' being whether Prince Christian Victor would
attain his heart's desire, a place in the Wellington Eleven.
The Prince got his colours. The
Eleven that year was made up as follows: M H Milner (Captain), C E F Bunbury,
P N Salmond, D A Pollock, E P Simpson, W G Raphael, A C M Croome, F A
Browning, G N Spiller, HH Prince Christian Victor and Honourable W Cairns. On
27 August of the same year, he sent the following telegram to his father: "Balmoral,
1883, 27, 8. 9 pm—To-day shot fine stag with ten points, at one hundred and
forty-three yards. The ball hit the right spot.— Christian Victor". By the
end of the month he had shot thirty-one stags in thirteen days and two
half-days' shooting. He wrote about the same time to his old tutor, Mr
Bourdillon: "I never told you that I got into the XI Second choice, or 8th in
the entire order. I was deer-stalking at Balmoral for five weeks last
holidays, and did very well. By the by, my cricket average was 18½ for 11 innings, twice not
out, 168 runs highest score; 46 v. Marlborough. I hope very soon to be Head
of the House, which means being made a prefect or monitor, and being in the
VI—With much love, believe me ever, your affectionate friend and pupil,
Christian Victor". And again, to his father: "I have not yet answered your
letter, but this term I have so little time to write. I send you the
'Wellingtonian' and you will see that I am 'in great form'. In the first
match here (only a pick-up amongst ourselves) I made 50; for my house I have
made 82, and got a new bat for it; for the school against CCC I made 50 again,
and got another new bat for that. Yesterday, against Kensington Park, I made
13 and 22 not out. ... Charterhouse came here on 5 July and another good
match on 28 June I have no more time, and so remain, etc". On 1 and 2 July
1885, he thus records one of the great school matches of the year, namely,
that against Haileybury College: "Haileybury Match, at Wellington College;
first day. We scored 173 first innings, myself 65; they, 115 for 7 wickets.
Papa and Mr Fisher came over". "Haileybury Match; second day. They made 131,
and we 139; myself 21; they then made 116; we won by 60". The Eleven of this
year consisted of: HH Prince Christian Victor (Captain), A Parker, E W
Markham, B M N Perkins, H D Hanbury, W R Collins, R H Pitcairn, A L Wood, H W
Fox, C Philcox and J W Watson. Despite his disappointment when he narrowly
missed getting his Cricket Blue, Prince Christian had a very happy time at
Oxford, where he worked and played cricket as hard as ever. His biographer
says: "If the Prince did not find a place in the Oxford team, he was very
successful in his cricket elsewhere. On 18 June (1887) he played for the
Oxford Harlequins against, Harrow School. The School Eleven then contained
some players of great, promise, since fulfilled, such as Mr A C M'Laren and Mr
(now the Honourable) F S Jackson, but the Harlequins were too strong for them;
Mr E F S Tylecote, as the Prince says, was in splendid form behind the sticks,
and the Prince himself made 103, a long way the best score achieved in the
match. In his next matches he made 46, 52, 83 not out; 68, 43, 32, 86, 46, 2,
13, 22 not out; 4, 13, 35; a remarkable series, giving an average of 45/w for
fourteen innings. He was also very successful at the wickets and in
bowling". While a cadet at Sandhurst, Prince Christian came of age, and on
his birthday was presented with the Freedom of the Borough of Windsor, in
which he had been born. It was decided that he should join the 60th King's
Royal Rifles. "He made their acquaintance by becoming their guest at
Aldershot for a cricket match. They were, he says, very friendly, and
welcomed him, 'because they say they want a wicket-keeper in the regiment' ".
On the 10th October 1888, he joined
his regiment at Aldershot, and in 1891
he was in India, and served in the Black Mountain Expedition as Orderly
Officer to the GOC, General Elles, and was mentioned in Despatches 20 October
1891: "Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein was most zealous in the
performance of all duties that fell to him, and takes great interest in his
profession. On the battalion being ordered for service in the field
elsewhere, he requested and obtained permission to rejoin it". He received
the Medal and clasp. He was next to see active service in the Miranzai
Expedition, under Sir William Lockhart. During this time he wrote to the
Queen on a bit of paper, for which he apologized, and said he was limited to
forty pounds of kit. The same day he sent his father instructions for a
cricket match between Cumberland Lodge and the Household Brigade, which was to
take place on the occasion of Prince and Princess Christian's silver wedding.
The Prince specially impressed it on his father to find out if any of the 2nd
Battalion of the 60th were at Aldershot, and to invite them, and also to have
their band to play, as well as the Guards. "They play splendidly, and people
are apt to forget that there are other bands and other regiments besides the
Guards. The arrangements about the band had better be made with Lord
Tewkesbury". Having disposed of the silver wedding, he remarks: "Here we have
had a good tight and have shot a frightful lot of the enemy. ... My Colour
Sergeant was shot in the leg as I was talking to him. The enemy shot very
well, and we lost a pretty good lot for a frontier war". In another letter he
says: "We have been pushing the enemy about all over the place ... The native
troops are splendid. I think that the German officers would say that there
are no troops in the world to touch our troops in India. I have never seen
anything to touch them anywhere. Soldiering out here spoils one for
soldiering in England ... I got a very kind letter and telegram from
Grandmamma on my birthday. Will you explain that I shall not be able to write
to her for her birthday till I can get some paper next week?" He
received a clasp to his Medal for this expedition.
He arrived in London on 29 May 1891,
and at Buckingham Palace evidently found some note-paper, on which he wrote to
the Queen: "I ought to have written and thanked you for your very kind letter
of congratulation after our two actions of 17 and 20 April. We were indeed
fortunate, and Sir William Lockhart has done wonders". General Lockhart had
written to the Governor-General, on 28 April, of Prince Christian: "His
Highness is a very keen, promising soldier, much liked in his battalion. He
has been engaged in every action hitherto". From 16 June to 11 July he played
and watched cricket every available moment, could not go to a State concert
because his uniform had not arrived, wrote some particulars in his diary about
his parents' silver wedding, his sister's wedding, a garden-party, at which
the German Emperor and Empress were present, and last, but not least, the
cricket match which he had thought out
during the Miranzai Expedition.
On 10 July he went to the Eton and
Harrow Match, and on 11 July: "Wimbledon Review. I was galloping for Uncle
Arthur. It was a great success. We all went to the Crystal Palace for
dinner, where there were the most splendid fireworks". Cricket took up most
of his time till 15 August, and on 17 August he went to Germany and brought
back some music for his band. On the 18th he sailed for India. He had more
cricket; was concerned in a match, "Ghazial v. The World" and had hopes of
getting a leopard that was prowling round his hut. "He gave at this time a
great deal of attention to shooting. Musketry appears in the diary every day
for many days together". He later wrote home a description of how he got his
first bear, and in another letter of more bear and ibex shooting, of his
successes among the natives as an amateur doctor. "His remedies were nervine
for toothache, and Cockle's pills for everything. The latter he found had a
moral as well as a medical effect on the Kashmiris". About this time he
remarked with great pride that he calculated that he was living at the rate of
three and sixpence a day!
In 1892 he accompanied the Isazai
Expedition, under Sir William Lockhart.
In November 1892, he wrote to the
Queen: "I go down to Meerut on the 12th of next month for the Rifle Meeting,
at which I am competing for the championship of India, and also am shooting in
my regimental team for the Inter-Regimental Prize". In 1893 he wrote home:
"My score of 242 points in the musketry course has not been beaten, and so I
believe I am the best in the regiment". 28 February: "I have just bought a
beautiful carpet from Amritsar; it was very cheap, about £13 in English money;
you would pay about £35 in London for the same thing, and then could not be
sure it was genuine". On 14 February he had written: "Four of us went out
shooting here on Saturday, and got sixteen hares, thirteen partridges, two
jackals, and one wild cat, which I was lucky enough to shoot". And on 13
March he stayed with a Mr Armstrong, at Markham Grant, Dehra Dun, and gives an
account of the shoot: There were five guns: Armstrong, two officers of the
Gurkhas from Delira, Maclaehlan of his own regiment, and himself: "So far we
have shot a sambur, thirteen cheetah, two pigs, a porcupine, and some twenty
jungle fowl". He himself got the sambur and seven of the cheetah. "No easy
matter shooting from an elephant in high grass. We tried to eat the
porcupine; it ought to have tasted very good, but this one was horrid". ''5
March: My latest purchase has been two camels, which will be of the greatest
use when we move to the hills, since it will cost me hardly anything to move
my things, as you have to give the camels no food, and they only graze by the
roadside". On 24 June he comments on the loss of the Victoria. "People
always say, why do these things happen to us? I always say the other
nations don't dare to do the things we do, and run no risks. Sir George Tryon
was, I believe, one of the best admirals we had". "In this country", he
remarks later, "musketry is looked upon as more important than drill, and I am
sure it is, but, unfortunately, in England it is not of so much importance".
On 21 August: "You'll be glad to hear that in a cricket match between my
regiment and the Devonshire Regiment we made 531, out of which I made 205
myself". 22 October: "We have played our last match, and I made 114 and 20,
so that I have finished up the season as well as I began. I have made 1,362
runs in 24 innings". He writes to the Queen, 22 October: "The greater portion
of our time is spent in musketry. ... I am now responsible to the
Colonel for the shooting, he having made it my special department. ... I am
also managing the band, and that gives me great enjoyment". In the beginning
of the year 1894, Prince Christian Victor, who had left the 1st Battalion at
Peshawar, often wrote to the officers, but his chief correspondent was a
non-commissioned officer, Mr J W Dwane, a very remarkable man, who, about the
time of the Prince's death, had risen to the rank of Major.
For a great part of this year he was
in the Citadel at Dover, going to Hythe for some weeks in the spring for a
course of musketry.
In 1895 he served in the Ashanti War,
as extra ADC to Sir Francis Scott. Prince Henry of Battenberg later obtained
leave to go. "No two gentlemen", said Mr Bennet Burleigh, "ever more quickly
won golden opinions by their gentle manners than Prince Henry and Prince
Christian Victor. They stuck to their duty, which they performed without the
slightest fuss or grumbling". On 30 January 1896, Prince Christian wrote home
that he had just heard of Prince Henry's death. "I am so awfully sorry for
poor Aunt Beatrice and those little children. It is very sad". Sir Evelyn
Wood wrote to the Queen: "Your Majesty would be much gratified by hearing the
accounts given by the officers returning from Ashanti of your grandson, who is
also a great favourite with them all". For his services in the Ashanti
Expedition he was honourably mentioned; received the Star, and later the Queen
telegraphed to his mother that she had just signed his promotion and brevet
Majority. The Prince explains his new position in a letter to his father: "I
get two shillings a day more than a Captain. I wear the uniform of a Major.
It can never happen to me now that I should be turned out on account of the
age clause". Of this provision for old age, Prince Christian Victor wrote to
his old friend Dwane: "You will have seen by the time that this arrives that I
have been promoted and also have been given a brevet Majority. I suppose it
is a great job, but still I natter myself that I am quite as much entitled to
one as many others who have been given brevets before". In 1897 he was at
Aldershot, and saw a good deal of perhaps his greatest friend, a young
lieutenant in the battalion, Mr Dermot Blundell. He was in the Jubilee
Procession in London; rode with the Queen at the Naval Review at Spithead, and
was with his company in the great Military Review on Laffan's Plain on 1 July.
Prince Christian Victor served in the
Nile Expedition in 1898. He went on the gunboats with Sir Colin Keppel. On
25 August the Zaphir sank, and though all were safely landed, Prince Christian
lost most of his personal possessions.
He wrote to the Queen on the 5th from
Omdurman: "I lost all I possess except my sword and a change of underclothing
and my blankets ... The battle on the 2nd was very exciting; my ship protected
the right side of the Zariba, and we fired shell after shell into dense masses
of Dervishes, and must have done fearful execution". On 9 December 1898, he
was invested with the GCVO by the Queen at Windsor. For the Nile Expedition
he had been mentioned in Despatches 30 September 1898; received the Medal and
the 4th Class Osmanieh. The University of Oxford gave him an honorary degree,
an honour which he valued very much. From December 1898, he was stationed in
Ireland, where he made many friends. In 1899 he passed the Staff College. On
6 October 1899, he started for South Africa, for what proved to be his last
campaign. On arrival at Cape Town he could not get through to join the 1st
Battalion King's Royal Rifles at Ladysmith, so he went on Captain Percy
Scott's Staff, at Durban. Sir Percy Scott wrote of him after his death: "I
wish now that I had kept his letters, as he was one of the few that believed
in heavy long-range guns before the Boers taught us their value. He went to
more than one General about heavy artillery, and wrote to me, 'They cannot see
that Rail Head is practically our fighting position, and that we might bring
up guns of any calibre we like'. Events afterwards showed how very true
this was. At the final attack on Colenso we had one six-inch gun; at the
first attack we might have had a dozen, which would very likely have changed
it from defeat to victory. Prince Christian's strong point was to employ
heavy artillery — 'not a fire engine' as he said to me — to attack men in an
entrenched position. Events have demonstrated that he was quite correct". In
one of Prince Christian's letters, written from South Africa, he says: "One of
the West York Reservists, a small baker in London, was shot through the leg.
He got a friend to turn him over, and then fired 25 more shots, till he was
hit again; he is doing well in hospital". General Hildyard got Prince
Christian appointed Assistant Staff Officer to the Brigade. His friend Mr
Dermot Blundell had arrived in Africa, came up to Frere with the 4th or Light
Brigade, and found the Prince there on 6 December. A week later, 13 December,
both Brigades moved together to Chieveley, where everything was preparing for
the grand movement and attack upon Colenso. The next day, the 14th, the
Prince watched the naval guns bombarding the centre of the Boer position. His
Brigade, the 2nd, was entrusted with the central portion of the attack, and
made their way for the big road bridge crossing the Tugela, going, in fact,
straight for Colenso village. In doing so they came under a very hot fire.
The Prince, who was Staff Officer to General Hildyard, was employed in
carrying messages both for him and for General Clery. Some attempt had been
made, without his knowledge, to keep him from any special exposure, but, as a
matter of fact, he was for a considerable time very much in the thick of the
fight, but was never touched. His own account in one of his letters was as
follows:
"I
was with Clery and Buller, and got into an awfully hot corner near the guns;
most people were killed or hit, but somehow, although the bullets were
ploughing the ground up all round, neither I nor my pony was touched; a bit of
shellgrazed my pony's neck and a bullet passed over my wallets, but these were
the nearest. Their shells did not burst properly. One officer remarked to me
that it was a 'confoundedly hot corner', and that 'pheasant shooting was not
in it'. Tommy Atkins was splendid all day and did not mind the bullets
one bit. Blundell was not under fire, but poor young Roberts was terribly
shot, and died the next day and was buried on Sunday". General Hildyard,
speaking of the Battle of Colenso, said of Prince Christian: "I had
endeavoured to avoid placing him in any position of unnecessary exposure. But
when next I saw the Prince he was right forward in an exposed position, to
which Clery had accompanied Buller, who had ridden forward to try and get the
remnants of his batteries, which had moved right up into effective fire,
extricated. Happily, he was not hit, and was only quite pleased at his
experience". Later the 2nd Brigade made its way first to Pretorius' Farm, and
later, under General Warren, to Trichardt's Drift. "In Warren's attack the
Prince was on the left part of the line. The 1st Brigade also went by
Trichardt's Drift, and were engaged in the action leading up to the assault on
Spion Kop, in which the Light Brigade played what was an important, and might
have been a still more important part, capturing one of the side spurs and
endeavouring to draw off some of the fire which fell with such awful severity
on the main plateaux; the Prince took no part, the force with which he was
being held in reserve. After the abandonment of Spion Kop and the failure of
the flanking movement, the whole force withdrew once more to the south of the
Tugela, the Prince's Brigade going on to Spearman's Camp Farm, which they
reached on 29 January". About this time Prince Christian wrote: "The country
is dreadfully difficult, unfordable rivers and high mountains. ... I think
this will do the Army no end of good, and will be an excellent preparation if
ever we have a European War". And again: "You really can't have any idea of
the country. It's really impossible, like Switzerland, and with all the
mountains made into fortresses". After the failure of the attack on Vaal
Krantz, Sir Redvers Buller ordered a retirement, via Springfield, to Chieveley.
On Vaal Krantz the brigade had been under fire from three sides. The Prince
wrote home: "We had a bad day at Vaalkrantz, under a cross shell-fire for
fourteen hours: some came very close". He was in the affairs at Cingolo and
Monte Cristo, which paved the way for the capture of the Middleburg laager.
Two days later Sir Charles Warren took Hlangwave, and on the 22nd, at two in
the morning, Sir Redvers Buller threw his troops across the Tugela, the 2nd
Brigade taking part in the operation. That night Mr Blundell was slightly
wounded near the left eye with the splash of a bullet. He did not want to
report himself wounded, but Prince Christian insisted that he should; saying:
"Your eye may go wrong, and if you're not reported you won't get your doctor's
bill paid, or any compensation". "Advice",said Mr Blundell, "which turned out
afterwards to be very sound". Prince Christian said, when writing to King
George (then Duke of York): "What we shall have to have in the Army are
batteries of heavy ordnance shooting 10,000 yards; these will, of course, not
be able to move rapidly; the Field Artillery will do this, as at present, but
these heavy guns will come up later with the infantry; this is a point which
this war was shown us to be necessary". He spent his last birthday at
Elandslaagte, his thirty-third, 14 April, 1900. On 19 April, Major General
Hildyard took over the 5th Division from Sir Charles Warren, and Prince
Christian acted for some time as DAAG to the Division. General Hildyard
followed the railway by Wessel's Nek and Waschbank.
He entered the Transvaal Territory on
the 28th, at Buffalo River, spent a few days about Utrecht and Ingogo River;
after that went back and was with Buller at the forcing of Botha's Pass, and
with him marched round the Boer right to Allrnan's Nek. The capture of this
position opened the gate into the Transvaal; Laing's Nek was secured, and the
5th Division occupied Yolksrust, being the first Division of the Natal Army to
enter and occupy a Transvaal town.
In August Prince Christian was
appointed an extra ADC to Lord Roberts.
He was at Pretoria, on 8 October, when
he began his last letter home, which he ended up on the 10th: "I played
cricket two days ago, and made 31 and 69. Unfortunately, the unaccustomed
exertion has given me fever; but it is not bad, only about 100°. But I have
had it two days, which is a bore". It turned out to be enteric.
On the 29th he was very weak, and the
Reverend George H Colbcck, Army chaplain, gave him by his own desire the Holy
Communion just before he lost consciousness, Lord Roberts, Prince Francis of
Teck, Lord Stanley, and his doctors and nurses being present. On the 29th he
died. The Prince had always told his mother he did not want to be brought
home if he died on active service, and he was buried on All Saints' Day at
Pretoria. His great friend, Mr Blundell, only arrived in time to attend his
funeral. Lords Roberts and Kitchener were present, and so was Prince Francis
of Teck, and eight Generals were the pall-bearers: Kelly, Brabazon, Wood,
Marshall, Maxwell, Inigo Jones, Baden-Powell and Surgeon General Wilson, while
Colonel Campbell and the officers of the 1st Battalion King's Royal Rifles
headed the mourners.
One of the most
touching accounts of the funeral was written in Germany by the war
correspondent of the Austrian 'Neue Freie Presse'. The news of Prince
Christian Victor's death was a crushing blow to his family. Queen Victoria
had been optimistic to the last — and she heard of his death at Balmoral on
the afternoon of the 29th. London was at the moment celebrating the return of
the City Imperial Volunteers. The Queen kept back the mournful news until the
evening, when, in a message to the Lord Mayor congratulating the city and its
brave sons on their return and speaking of those who had fallen, Her Majesty
announced to them her own bereavement in the words: "I, alas, have to grieve
for the loss of a dear and most gallant grandson, who, like so many of your
companions, has served and died for his Queen and country".
See his casualty
entry.
[GCB, GCVO,] MVO,
DSO, IGS 1854 (2) Hazara 1891 Samana, Ashanti Star, Queens Sudan, QSA (6) CC
T-H RofL L-N OFS Belf, 1897 Jubilee in gold, Khedives Sudan Khartoum Order
of the Red Eagle (Prussia) class unknown, Order of Ernestine (Saxony) Grand
Cross, Order of the Osmanie (Turkey) class unknown.
Regimental
Museum, Winchester 1996.
