Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale

Prince Albert Victor was the eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but did not become king as he died before his father and grandmother. Rumours in his time linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal, which involved a homosexual brothel. There is no conclusive evidence that he ever went there, or was indeed homosexual.

About Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale in brief

Prince Albert Victor was the eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but did not become king as he died before his father and grandmother. Albert Victor’s intellect, sexuality and mental health have been the subject of speculation. Rumours in his time linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal, which involved a homosexual brothel. There is no conclusive evidence that he ever went there, or was indeed homosexual. Some authors have argued that he was the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, but contemporary documents show that Albert Victor could not have been in London at the time of the murders, and the claim is widely dismissed. He died during an influenza pandemic, a few weeks after he was engaged to be married to Princess Mary of Teck. Mary later married his younger brother, who became King George V in 1910. When young, he travelled the world extensively as a naval cadet, and as an adult he joined the British Army, but didn’t undertake any active military duties. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the debating society. He is buried at Sandringham, near Windsor, Berkshire, with his mother, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, and his father, Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and brother, Prince George. His godparents were Queen Victoria, King Christian IX of Denmark and King Leopold I of Belgium. As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch in the male line, he was formally styled His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales from birth.

In 1871, the Queen appointed John Neale Dalton as their tutor. The two princes were given a strict programme of study, which included games and military drills as well as academic subjects. They toured the British Empire, visiting the Americas, the Falklands, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, Egypt, Egypt and the Holy Land. By the time they returned to Britain in 1883, they were eighteen. The brothers were parted in1883; George continued in the navy and Albert Victor in the army. At Bachelor’s Cottage, Albert Victor attended Cambridge University and was expected to cram before arriving at university in the company of a newly chosen tutor, James Monsur Hua. He never excelled intellectually, but was described as a ‘brilliant student’ by Lady Geraldine Somerset, who blamed his poor education on Dalton, whom she considered uninspiring. His brother George of Wales was born on 3 June 1865, and they were educated together. They began their studies there two months behind the other cadets as Albert Victor contracted typhoid fever, for which he was treated by Sir William Gull. They were sent as naval cadets on a three-year world tour aboard HMS Bacchante. They visited the Falkland Islands, the South Africa and the Far East, Singapore, Aden, Ceylon, Aden and Japan, and acquired tattoos in Japan in 1879, and continued in Japan until 1883.

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