Princess Beatrice's eldest child, Alexander Albert, was born on November 23 1889 at Windsor Castle; he was known in the family as Drino. As a child, together with his younger brothers and sister, he lived at the shadowness of Victorian court, always dominated by his grandmother Queen Victoria.
On July 19, 1917, when he was 31 years old, he married the only daughter of William Denison, 2nd Earl of Londesborough, Lady Irene Denison. That same year, because of the War, Alexander resigned to his German titles and was created Marquess of Carisbrooke. He had served during six years in the Royal Navy and during World War I he served in the Granadier Guards, but he was wounded in the leg at the battle of the Aisne and was sent home as an invalide.
In 1919, he entered as a junior clerk to Lazards Bank and afterwards he worked as director of s store in Oxford Street where he adviced buyers of decorative fabrics.
From his marriage, he had only one child, a daughter, Lady Iris Mountbatten, who married three times and by her second marriage to the amercian jazz guitarist Michael Neely Bryan, she had a son, Robin Bryan, Alexander's only grandchild, and who nowadays lives in Toronto, Canada. Prince Alexander died on February 23, 1960, in London.
Lord Leopold Mountbatten (1889-1922)
Leopold Arthur Louis, Princess Beatrice's second son and third child, was born on May 21, 1889, at Windsor Castle. Leopold inherited from her mother the haemophilia gene, so he was a weak child. Since he was a young boy he manifested a special talent for music and he learnt to play the violin. When his grandmother, Queen Victoria, was dying, he played the violin, and his playing had a soothing effect on the Queen. At the outbreak of World War I, Leopold changed his German title of Battenberg for the more British Mountbatten. and he entered as a lieutenant to the King's Royal Rifle Corps, but his haemophilia only allowed him to receive a staff appointment and nothing more. He never married and on April 23, 1922 he had to be subjected to an emergency surgery, after which he died because of his haemophilia. He was about to be 33 years old.
Prince Maurice of Battenberg (1891-1914)
Maurice Victor Donald was Princess Beatrice youngest son and Queen Victoria's youngest grandchild. He was born on October 3, 1891, at Balmoral, in Scotland, just as his sister Victoria Eugenia. the Queen of Spain. He was an a lively cheeky boy, full of energy and very friendly.In 1900, when he was 9 years old, his cousin Prince Christian Victor died of fever in Pretoria during the Boer War. Young Maurice was much upset to hear of the death of his cousin, who had been with his father in Ashanti and who was in the 60th King's Royal Fusiliers.. That evening Maurice went to his cousin,Princess Helena Victoria, Christian Victor's sister, and told her: "Cousin Thora, it may comfort you to know that I have decided to join the 60th when I am old enough".
In 1903 he attended to Locker's Park School at Hemel Hampstead in Herfortshire. In 1905 he went on to Wellington and then to Sandhurts. At school, his classmates called him "Plumpy".
It is said that Maurice was also haemophiliac as his brother Leopold, but there are some evidences that he grew up as a healthy boy. Maurice became an attractive, high spirited young man; he was fascinated by flying and fast cars. In May 1914 he was fined for speeding 34 mph along Hampton Court Road. He joined the 60th King's Royal Fusiliers, as he had promised when he was nine. During World War I, he fought at Mons in Auigust 1914 ands survived the long retreat that followed. On October 27 1914, the 23-year-old Maurice was leading an attack on the Belgian front line in Zonnebeke, near Ypres, when he was killed instantly by en exploding shell. It was the general rule for soldiers who were killed in action to be buried where they died, but Lord Kitchener was about to make an exception, ordering that Maurice's body was sent home, but Princess Beatrice requested him that her son's body be buried among his comrades, so he was buried at the town cemetery at Ypres.
Prince Maurice epitaph was: "Those who shared with Maurice of Battenberg, the perils and glories, the happiness and the miseries of life at the front, will retain memeories of his pluck, his lovable nature and his good comradeship. For all he had a cheery kindly word and all had a kindly word for him".
Bibliography
Duff, David: The Shy Princess, the life of Princess Beatrice.
Packard, Jerrold M: Victoria's Daughters
Eilers, Marlene: Queen Victoria's Descendants
Zeepvat Charlotte: Queen Victoria's Family
Maurice
Leopold
Alexander
