| Prince John | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Photograph by William Harding Lauder,c. 1909 | |||||
| Born | Prince John of Wales (1905-07-12)12 July 1905 York Cottage,Sandringham, England | ||||
| Died | 18 January 1919(1919-01-18) (aged 13) Wood Farm, Sandringham, England | ||||
| Burial | 21 January 1919 | ||||
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| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (until 1917) Windsor (from 1917)[note 1] | ||||
| Father | George V | ||||
| Mother | Mary of Teck | ||||
| Signature | .jpg) | ||||
Prince John (John Charles Francis; 12 July 1905 – 18 January 1919) was the fifth son and youngest of the six children ofKing George V andQueen Mary. At the time of his birth, his father washeir apparent to John's grandfatherEdward VII. In 1910, John's father acceded to the throne uponEdward VII's death, and John became fifth in theline of succession to the British throne.
In 1909, it was discovered that John hadepilepsy. In 1916, as his condition deteriorated, he was sent to live atSandringham House and kept away from the public eye. There, he was cared for by his governess,Charlotte "Lala" Bill, and befriended local children whom his mother had gathered to be his playmates. He died at Sandringham in 1919 after a severe seizure, and was buried at nearbySt Mary Magdalene Church. His illness was disclosed to the wider public only after his death.
John's seclusion was subsequently brought forward as evidence of the royal family's inhumanity. However, contrary to the belief that he was hidden from an early age, John was a fully-fledged member of the family for most of his life, appearing frequently in public until after his eleventh birthday, when his condition became severe.[2]
John was born at York Cottage on theSandringham Estate on 12 July 1905, at 3:05 am, during the reign of his paternal grandfather,King Edward VII.[3] He was the youngest child and fifth son ofGeorge, Prince of Wales, andMary, Princess of Wales. He was namedJohn despite that name's unlucky associations for the royal family,[4] and was informally known as "Johnnie".[5] At the time of his birth, he was sixth in theline of succession to the throne, behind his father and four older brothers. As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch in the male line, and a son of thePrince of Wales, he was formally styledHis Royal Highness Prince John of Wales from birth until his father's accession to the throne in 1910.
John was christened on 3 August 1905 in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene at Sandringham, with the Reverend CanonJohn Neale Dalton officiating. His godparents were KingCarlos I of Portugal; John's unclesPrince Carl of Denmark andAlexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife; his great-grandunclePrince Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg; and three of his first cousins once removed, theDuke andDuchess of Sparta andPrincess Alice, Countess of Athlone. John's father stood proxy for King Carlos, Prince Carl, Prince Johann and the Duke of Fife, while John's auntPrincess Victoria stood proxy for the Duchess of Sparta and Princess Alice.[6]
Much of John's early life was spent at Sandringham with his siblings—Prince Edward (known as David to the royal family),Prince Albert (known as Bertie, later King George VI),Princess Mary,Prince Henry andPrince George—under the care of their nannyCharlotte "Lala" Bill.[4] Though a strict disciplinarian,[note 2] John's father was affectionate toward his children;[7] John's mother was close to her children and encouraged them to confide in her.[8] In 1909, John's grandaunt, theDowager Empress of Russia, wrote to her sonTsar Nicholas II: "George's children are very nice ... The little ones, George and Johnny are both charming and very amusing".[9] John's aunt Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone described him as "very quaint and one evening when Uncle George returned from stalking he bent over Aunt May and kissed her, and they heard Johnny soliloquize, 'She kissed Papa, ugly old man!'"[10] George V once told U.S. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt that "all [his] children [were] obedient, except John"—apparently because he alone, among the king's children, escaped punishment from their father.[2]
Though a "large and handsome" baby,[11] John had become "winsome" and "painfully slow" by his fourth birthday.[12] That same year, he had his firstepileptic seizure and showed signs of a disability, probablyautism orlearning disabilities.[4] When his father became king, John did not attendhis parents' coronation on 22 June 1911, as this was considered too risky for his health; cynics said that the family feared their reputation would be damaged by any incident involving him. Although John was deemed not "presentable to the outside world,"[13] the king still showed interest in him, offering him "kindness and affection".[14]
During his time at Sandringham, John exhibited some repetitive behaviours as well as regular misbehaviours and insubordination: "he simply didn't understand he needed to [behave]."[2]
In 1912, Prince George, John's closest sibling, began St Peter's Court Preparatory School atBroadstairs. The next summer,The Times reported that John would not attend Broadstairs the next term, and that his parents had not decided whether to send him to school at all. After the outbreak ofWorld War I, he rarely saw his parents, who were often away on official duties, or his siblings, who were either at boarding school or in the military. He slowly disappeared from the public eye, and no official portraits of him were commissioned after 1913.[2]
In 1916, as his seizures became more frequent and severe, John was sent to live atWood Farm, with Lala Bill in charge of his care.[15] He maintained an interest in the world around him and was capable of coherent thought and expression,[16] but with his lack of educational progress, the last of his tutors was dismissed and his formal education ended. Physicians warned that it was unlikely that he would reach adulthood.[2]
At Wood Farm, John became "a satellite with his own little household on an outlying farm on the Sandringham estate ... Guests atBalmoral remember him during the Great War as tall and muscular, but always a distant figure glimpsed from afar in the woods, escorted by his own retainers."[17] His grandmotherQueen Alexandra maintained a garden at Sandringham House especially for him,[2] and this became "one of the great pleasures of [Prince John]'s life."[16]
After the summer of 1916, John was rarely seen outside the Sandringham Estate and passed solely into Lala Bill's care. After Queen Alexandra wrote that John "is very proud of his house but is longing for a companion",[18] Queen Mary broke from royal practice by having local children brought in to be playmates for him. One of these was Winifred Thomas, a young girl fromHalifax who had been sent to live with her aunt and uncle (who had charge of the royal stables at Sandringham) in hopes herasthma would improve.[2] John had known Winifred years earlier, before World War I.[note 3] They became close, taking nature walks together and working in Queen Alexandra's garden. John also played with his elder siblings when they visited: once, when his two eldest brothers came to visit, thePrince of Wales "took him for a run in a kind of a push-cart, and they both disappeared from view."[19]
John's seizures intensified, and Bill later wrote "we dared not let him be with his brothers and sister, because it upsets them so much, with the attacks getting so bad and coming so often."[2] Biographer Denis Judd believes that John's "seclusion and 'abnormality' must have been disturbing to his brothers and sister", as he had been "a friendly, outgoing little boy, much loved by his brothers and sister, a sort of mascot for the family".[17] He spent Christmas Day 1918 with his family at Sandringham House but was driven back to Wood Farm at night.
On 18 January 1919, after a severe seizure, John died in his sleep at Wood Farm at 5:30 pm.[20] Queen Mary wrote in her diary that the news was:
a great shock, tho' for the poor little boy's restless soul, death came as a great relief. [She] broke the news to George and [they] motored down to Wood Farm. Found poor Lala very resigned but heartbroken. Little Johnnie looked very peaceful lying there.[17]
Mary later wrote to Emily Alcock, an old friend, that:
for [John] it is a great relief, as his malady was becoming worse as he grew older, & he has thus been spared much suffering. I cannot say how grateful we feel to God for having taken him in such a peaceful way, he just slept quietly into his heavenly home, no pain no struggle, just peace for the poor little troubled spirit which had been a great anxiety to us for many years, ever since he was four years old.[21][22]
She added: "The first break in the family circle is hard to bear, but people have been so kind & sympathetic & this has helped us much."[21][22] George described his son's death as "the greatest mercy possible".[2]
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On 20 January, theDaily Mirror wrote that "when the Prince passed away his face bore an angelic smile";[20] its report also made the first public mention of John's epilepsy.[2] His funeral was the next day at St Mary Magdalene parish church. John Neale Dalton officiated.[23]
Queen Mary wrote:
Canon Dalton & Dr Brownhill [John's physician] conducted the service which was awfully sad and touching. Many of our own people and the villagers were present. We thanked all Johnnie's servants who have been so good and faithful to him.[24]
Though nominally private, the funeral was attended by Sandringham House staff; "every single person on the estate went and stood around the gates and his grave was absolutely covered in flowers."[25] Queen Alexandra wrote to Queen Mary that "now [their] two darling Johnnies lie side by side".[note 4][26]
Prince Edward, who was 11 years older than John and had hardly known him, saw his death as "little more than a regrettable nuisance."[27] He wrote an insensitive letter to Queen Mary, which has since been lost.[2] She did not reply, but he felt compelled to write her an apology, in which he stated:
I feel such a cold hearted and unsympathetic swine for writing all that I did ... No one can realise more than you how little poor Johnnie meant to me who hardly knew him ... I feel so much for you, darling Mama, who was his mother.[27]
In her final mention of John in her diary, Mary wrote simply, "miss the dear child very much indeed."[2] She gave Winifred Thomas a number of John's books, which she had inscribed, "In memory of our dear little Prince." Lala Bill always kept a portrait of John above her mantelpiece, together with a letter from him that read "nanny, I love you."[2] In the 21st century John's seclusion has been brought forward as evidence of the Windsors' "heartlessness".[4] According to a 2008Channel 4 documentary, much of the existing information about John is "based on hearsay and rumour, precisely because so few details of his life and his problems have ever been disclosed",[2] and the British Epileptic Association has stated:
There was nothing unusual in what [the King and Queen] did. At that time, people with epilepsy were put apart from the rest of the community. They were often put in epilepsy colonies or mental institutions. It was thought to be a form of mental illness...[28]
adding that it was another 20 years until the idea that epileptics should not be locked away began to take hold.[29]
One author has said that the royal family believed that these afflictions might flow through their blood, which was then still believed to be purer than the blood of a commoner, and consequently wished to hide as much as possible about John's illness.[30] Others have suggested that John was sent to Wood Farm to give him the best environment possible under the "austere" conditions of World War I.[31] Another author has said that the royal family were "frightened and ashamed of John's illness",[4] and yet another said that John's life is "usually portrayed either as tragedy or conspiracy".[2] At the time thatEdward VIII (formerly Prince Edward)abdicated, an attempt was made to discredit Prince Albert, who had succeeded asGeorge VI, by suggesting that he was subject to falling fits, like John. In 1998, after the discovery of two volumes of family photographs, John was briefly brought to public attention.[4]
The Lost Prince, a biographical drama about John's life written and directed byStephen Poliakoff, was released in 2003.[32]
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Generations are numbered by their descent fromGeorge V andMary of Teck | ||
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*Descendant ofElizabeth II and therefore use the surnameMountbatten-Windsor, but officially considered members of the House of Windsor | ||
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