George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven

Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, GCVO (6 November 1892[1] – 8 April 1938), born Prince George of Battenberg, styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was a Royal Navy officer and the elder son of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (Prince Louis of Battenberg), and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.

Captain The Most Honourable

The Marquess of Milford Haven

GCVO
Portrait by Philip de Laszlo, 1924
BornPrince George of Battenberg
(1892-11-06)6 November 1892[1]
New Palace, Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire
Died8 April 1938(1938-04-08) (aged 45)
London, England
Buried13 April 1938
Bray, Berkshire, England
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1916)​
Issue
FatherLouis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven
MotherPrincess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service1904–37
RankCaptain
Battles/warsFirst World War

Biography

Prince George of Battenberg, as he then was, was born at Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, then ruled by his maternal uncle Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse. From birth, he was a prince of the Hessian royal family, albeit of a morganatic branch. His siblings were Princess Alice (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to whom he was a mentor in Philip's adolescence), Queen Louise of Sweden and Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (who assumed the role of Philip's mentor after George's death).

George followed his father into the Royal Navy, and after passing out from the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1913.[2] He was promoted to lieutenant on 15 February 1914,[3] and served in the First World War. In 1917, his father and several of his relations relinquished their German names, styles and titles in exchange for British peerages at the behest of George V. Accordingly, Prince George dropped the style of Serene Highness and his surname was anglicised to "Mountbatten." When his father was created Marquess of Milford Haven in late 1917, George received the courtesy title of Earl of Medina, succeeding to his father's peerage after his death in September 1921. During the war, George's aunt Empress Alexandra of Russia along with his uncle by marriage Nicholas II of Russia, five cousins and another aunt Elisabeth were killed by communist revolutionaries.

Lord Milford Haven, as George was now known, remained in the Royal Navy after the war; he was promoted to lieutenant-commander on 15 February 1922[4] and to commander on 31 December 1926.[5] In 1932, he retired from active service at his own request, with effect from 9 December of that year.[6] On 6 November 1937, shortly before his death, he was promoted to the rank of captain on the retired list.[7]

An accomplished mathematician, the Marquess "could work out complicated gunnery problems in his head" and "read books on calculus casually on trains".[8] Queen Elizabeth II, his niece-in-law, considered him "one of the most intelligent and brilliant of people".[9]

Marriage and issue

Prince George of Battenberg, as he then was known, married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby (daughter of Russian Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich Romanov and his morganatic wife, Countess Sophie von Merenberg) on 15 November 1916 at the Russian Embassy, Welbeck Street, London. They lived at Lynden Manor[10] at Holyport in Berkshire and had two children:

Death

Lord Milford Haven died of bone marrow cancer, aged 45, and was buried in Bray Cemetery, Bray, Berkshire.

Legacy to the British Museum

Lord Milford Haven left artifacts to the British Museum.[11][12]

Honours

Arms
Coat of arms of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven
Coronet
A Coronet of a Marquess
Crest
1st: 1st: Out of a Coronet Or two Horns barry of ten Argent and Gules issuing from each three Linden Leaves Vert and from the outer side of each horn four Branches barwise having three like Leaves pendent therefrom of the last (Hesse); 2nd: Out of a Coronet Or a Plume of four Ostrich Feathers alternately Argent and Sable (Battenberg)
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Azure a Lion rampant double-queued barry of ten Argent and Gules armed and langued of the last crowned Or within a Bordure company of the second and third (Hesse); 2nd and 3rd, Argent two Pallets Sable (Battenberg); charged on the honour point with an Escutcheon of the arms of the late Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, namely: the Royal Arms differenced by a Label of three points Argent the centre point charged with a Rose Gules barbed Vert and each of the other points with an Ermine Spot Sable
Supporters
On either side a Lion double-queued and crowned all Or
Motto
In Honour Bound
Orders
The shield is surrounded by the Royal Victorian Order circlet, which states VICTORIA

Ancestry

Notes
  1. Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 901; Laufende Nummer: 150
  2. "No. 28688". The London Gazette. 7 February 1913. p. 960.
  3. "No. 28802". The London Gazette. 17 February 1914. p. 1273.
  4. "No. 32613". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 February 1922. p. 1414.
  5. "No. 33235". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1926. p. 8.
  6. "No. 33890". The London Gazette. 9 December 1932. p. 7833.
  7. "No. 34454". The London Gazette. 12 November 1937. p. 7087.
  8. Hough, p. 359
  9. Quoted in Hough, p. 360
  10. Lynden Manor Berkshire History
  11. "Is that it?". the Guardian. 23 February 2002. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  12. "Printed books". The British Library. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  13. Milford Haven (1917) Cracroft's Peerage. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  14. "No. 30116". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 June 1917. p. 5591.
  15. "No. 30227". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 August 1917. p. 8208.
  16. Metnitz, Gustav Adolf (1953), "Alexander", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 192; (full text online)
  17. Battenberg family at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  18. Franz, E.G. (2005). Das Haus Hessen: Eine europäische Familie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag. pp. 164–170. ISBN 978-3-17-018919-5. OCLC 76873355.
  19. Franz, Eckhart G. (1987), "Ludwig IV.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 15, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 398–400; (full text online)
  20. Weir, Alison (1996). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (Revised ed.). London: Pimlico. pp. 305–307. ISBN 0-7126-7448-9.

References
  • Hough, Richard (1984). Louis and Victoria: The Family History of the Mountbattens. Second edition. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78470-6.
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