Alexander Münster

Count, later Prince, Alexander Otto Hugo Wladimir zu Münster (1 September 1858 – 12 October 1922) was a German aristocrat who was the owner of Maresfield Park estate, Maresfield, East Sussex.

Alexander Münster

Early life and family

Prince Alexander Münster was born in Derneburg, Kingdom of Hanover, on 1 September 1858,[1] the son of Georg Herbert, Prince zu Münster (1820–1902), German ambassador in London 1873-1885 and subsequently Paris.[2] His mother was his father's first wife, Princess Aleksandra Mikhailovna Golitsyna.

Marriage of Count Alexander Munster and Lady Muriel Hay, St Andrews, Wells Street, Illustrated London News, 1890.

In 1890 he married Lady Muriel Hay (1863–1927), daughter of George Hay-Drummond, 12th Earl of Kinnoull, at St Andrews church in Wells Street, London, an event depicted on the front page of The Illustrated London News.[3] The couple had sons Friedrich (1891-1942) and Paul (1898-1968).[4]

Maresfield Park at the time of Count Munster

Life in England

Münster inherited Maresfield Park estate in 1899 from his friend Hervey Charles Pechell. Münster was living in Maresfield Park while Pechell and his wife, Blanche Henrietta Johnes Shelley, resided in Bellagio in Italy. He officiated at the planting of the oak on Maresfield Recreation Ground commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897 which was performed by her eldest daughter the German Empress, wife of the German Emperor Frederick III. The Pechells had donated the ground to the parish in 1897 but Münster legally transferred it in 1899. In 1915, during the First World War, it was seized from him by the British government under the Trading With the Enemy laws as he was a German citizen.[1][5] Records relating to Maresfield Park are held by the East Sussex Record Office.[6]

Death and legacy

Münster died on 12 October 1922.[1] Maresfield Park was sold in 1924[5] to William Henry Abbey,[7] a brewer , industrialist and landowner.

Count Munster at Maresfield Park, standing second from right

References
  1. Alexander Otto Munster, Count. The Weald. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  2. "Prince von Munster". Kalgoorlie Miner, 9 October 1899, p. 2. Retrieved from Trove, 2 September 2017.
  3. The Illustrated London News, No. 2669, Vol. XCVI, 14 June 1890, p. 1.
  4. Familie zu Münster. Archived 2017-09-02 at the Wayback Machine Derneburg. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  5. History. Archived 2017-08-31 at the Wayback Machine Maresfield Parish Council. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  6. Maresfield Park (Count Alexander Munster). National Archives. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  7. "History of Brighton people". Brighton History website.
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