Maurice Bourke

Captain Maurice Archibald Bourke CMG (22 December 1853 – 16 September 1900) was a Royal Navy officer who became Naval Secretary.

Maurice Bourke
Born22 December 1853
Died16 September 1900 (1900-09-17) (aged 46)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
RankCaptain
AwardsCompanion of the Order of St Michael and St George

Born the son of Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, Bourke joined the Royal Navy in 1867 and advanced to command HMS Surprise, Prince Alfred's Royal Yacht in the late 1880s.[1] In 1891 he was made Flag Captain of HMS Victoria. On 22 June 1893, while manoeuvring under the orders of the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, Victoria collided with Camperdown near Tripoli, Lebanon and quickly sank, taking 358 crew with her, including Tryon.[2] At the court martial Bourke was absolved of all blame.[3] Bourke also became an extra equerry to Prince Alfred.[4]

He was appointed Assistant Director of Torpedoes in 1895 and Senior Officer of the Newfoundland Fisheries Division in 1896.[5] He went on to be Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty[6] and died in office.[7]

Private life

In the late 1880s Bourke was romantically linked with Princess Victoria of Prussia, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, and some members of the royal family looked on the match as possible. It was Bourke who broke off the romance, and not the princess. The Duchess of Edinburgh wrote to Princess Charlotte of Prussia in 1890 that Victoria was still in love with Bourke and had been heart-broken by the end of the flirtation.[8]

References
  1. The Story of my life Part 4 by Marie, Queen of Rumania The Saturday Evening Post, 6 January 1934
  2. The Times, 24 June 1893, issue 33986, page 7, 'Terrible naval disaster'
  3. Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command, John Murray, p.274
  4. Whitaker's Almanack 1894 p. 94
  5. Naval & Military Intelligence, The Times, 17 April 1896
  6. Senior Royal Naval Appointments Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Obituary: Captain Maurice Bourke, The Times, 19 September 1900
  8. "Princess Victoria dies lonely and alone". Royal Musings. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
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