THE LATE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 78 (Supplement)

THE LATE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE

''■[ SKETCH OF HKCABEEB. ' London, March 19. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cam--bridge, who had been in failing health for some Weeks, died at his London residence, Gloucester House, Park Lane, on Thurs- ' day.impruingi Anthin' - nine days of completing his Both' year. His Royal Highness had been becoming increasingly feeble,-with advancing years and during : the last year or two his was a pathetic figure, as leaning heavily on the arms of his sons he would, with faltering steps, walk forward to address a gathering in aid r of some patriotic movement. The Duke invariably wintered in the South of France, "where he derived great benefit from the, climate, but this winter declining strength necessitated 1 the abandonment of the visit. After some days of satisfactorily progress. His Royal Highness was seized early on Wednesday morning with a recurrence of hemorrhage of the stomach, and, though he rallied slightly during the early part of the day, he.-rapidly lost ground, as a consequence of/further bleeding, in he afternoon, and gradually sank until the end came.

With the exception of the King of Denmark the Duke of Cambridge was the oldest member of any of the Royal Families of Europe. He was Commander-in-CM.ef of the British Army for nearly 40 years, and from 1887 until his retirement lief held the office under Letters Patent, a distinction conferred on no Commander-in-Chief since the days of the Duke of Wellington, and not likely to be conferred on: any other.

A man of genial presence, big boned, well set up, fond of the good things of this life, an admirable raconteur, and, what is not quite so common, a gepd listener, the Duke made personal friends wherever he wen-; though by a habit of straight'public speaking, which never left him, be aroused many temporary antipathies. He inherited his vitality and his longevity apparently fromTiis mother, •who was a daughter of the Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Cassel. / MILITARY CAREER.

The story of his public life is practically'.the story of the British Army. Born on March 26, 1819, his father, the seventh son of- George 111., was Rfegent of Hanover. The subject of this memoir received his early education chiefly under the tutorship of the Rev. Ryle Wood, who was afterwards a Canon of Worcester, and while he was yet a student he joined the Hanoverian Guards, doing “sentry go” with the meanest, of the privates outside the Vicoregal Palace. It was amid these surroundings perhaps that he learned to know so much of and attach that high importance to small military details which in years to come were the subject of; much sarcasm at his expense. In 1837. shortly after the accession of Queen Victoria, he was made a Bolonei in the British Army. In those 'ffiys promotion for -i •

Royalty was rapid. Thirteen years later, 6n the death of his father, Lord ' John Russell, then Prime Minister, moved the House of Commons to grant him an annuity of <£12,000 a year. Mr Hume, who led the advanced Radicals, proposed an amendment reducing the sum to <£Booo, which, of course, was defeated. We mention this because at the time, and for a fipod many years afterwards; the Crown had not that popularity and almost veneration which came to it in the later years of Queen Victoria’s life, and accordingly many of the strictures which His Royal Highness had to endure in the early days of his reign, at the Horse Guards were couched in terms of rancour to which the present generation is quite unaccustomed'. In 1845 he was already a Major-General; iii 1854, during the progress of the Crimean War, a full General; and in 1832 a Field-Marshal. The Duke went out to Russia in command of the brigade of Guards and Highlanders which formed the first division of the Eastern Army. He did not see the war through, but he took his share of the daggers and privations of the earlier part of that campaign. At Alma he led his division to a. frontal attack on the ap-parently-iiu pregnable Russian fortresg with a coolness which won him much praise and the devotion of his men. He was an eye-witness of the historic charge of Balaclava, and was in the very thick of the fight at Inker man, known as the Soldiers’ Battle. In this engagement his horse was shot under him, and, according to Grant’s account, lie was at one time surrounded b} r the enemy, so that had it not been for a doctor of the Highland Brigade named Wilson, who drew his swcr.l and led a few men to the rescue, the Duke would have been either killed or taken prisoner.

APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-COELIEIF. In 1836 he was made Commander-in-Chief. Readers of history will remember the tragic death of his predecessor, Bord Hardinge, who, while laying before the Queen the report of a military commission on the operations in the Crimea, was seized with paralysis, fell across the table at which he was standing, and could only murmur his apologies “for making such a disturbance” before unconsciousness came. Lord Palmerston m July, 1856. informed the Queen that “the Cabinet had come to the conclusion that in the appointment of a successor to Lord Hardinge, Her Majesty’s choice could not fall on any general officer better suited to the important position that His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge.’’ thus ho entered upon a post which, as we nave said before, he held for close on 40 years. It was in 1887, on the jubilee anniversary of his entry into the military life, that Queen Victoria granted him his Letters Patent which converted him from the “General commanding in Chief” to “Com-mander-in-Chieß’ of the British Army. It would need almost a volume to trace the changes which have come over the army from 1856 to June, 1895. Most of these changes were carried out by politicians against the wish of the Duke; for it is nv> disrespect to him to say that in military matters he was very conservative. The abolition of purchase, Mr Cardwell’s' schemes of short service and territorial regiments he opposed with all the influence he had, though in later years he admitted that many of the fears lie expressed at the time had been proved groundless. The Duke had been at the Horse. Guards scarcely two years when a Military Committee was appointed, and Low many other Committees and Commissions he had to run the gauntlet of it is unnecessary now to specify. He had to witness the growing power o c the civilian Secretary of State and his own diminishing authority. But he fought valiantly for his opinions, and he had the power which comes of knowledge—knowledge acquired by hard work. Until within the last few years of his office, when failing health made an animal vsit to the Mediterranean necessary, he was never away for more than a month or six weeks, and even then he was pursued by despatches and reports. HIS RESIGNATION. On the 21st June, 1895, within an hour or two of the upset of the then Liberal Government on the cordite vote. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman announced that on the Ist. October following the Duke would lay down his burden of office as Commander-in-Cliief. The War Minister’s tribute to the services of His Royal Highness was generous and graceful; so were those which were made from other quarters of the House and in the press of the country. There can be no doubt that his retirement was necessary for the carrying out of the reforms on which the Government had set its heart; and that this step was acquiesced in by the other side is proved from the fact that when the ■Unionists came in the arrangement was not disturbed. His marriage. There only remains to be told the romantic story of his marriage. He contracted, as the world knows, a morganatic union! Before the Crimean war broke out lie had become greatly attached to Miss Louise Farehrotlier, a lady who was of the theatrical profession, and lie insisted before proceeding to the front on legalising, so far as a noyal prince could, their union. Nor was any attempt ever made to disturb the relations which subsisted between them, and Mrs Fitz-George, as she is called, was received by the Queen and other members of th Royal Family. The attachment of their, youth remained throughout their long life, and when the Duke’s mother, who died in 1889, was suffering from her last long illness Mrs FitzGeorge was her most devoted attendant. There were five children: by the marriage —three sons and two daughters. Of the former the eldest and the .youngest embraced the profession of the soldier, and are now on the retired list—Colonel George Fitz-George and Colonel Augustus Fitz-George. His second son. Adolphus, went into the navy, and was regarded as a painstaking ancl studious officer. He, too, is' on the retired list, with the rank of Rear-Admiral.

During his illness the Duke was constantly visited by the King and Qiieen, who were kept informed of the condition of their aged relatives