by Susan Flantzer

• Wilhelm II, German Emperor and the Noble Peace Prize
• Timeline: February 1, 1917 – February 28, 1917
• A Note About German Titles
• February 1917 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

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Wilhelm II, German Emperor and the Noble Peace Prize

As I started to research this article, I realized I did not have as many options for a topic as in past months. I had only one death of a royal/peer/peer’s son with very little information and no World War I event involving royalty. I started to peruse the February 1917 dates On This Day area at http://www.firstworldwar.com/ and found this for February 2, 1917: “Stambul University proposes German Emperor as recipient of Nobel Peace Prize.”  Wilhelm II, German Emperor nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, he was nominated twice in 1917 and also once in 1911!  First, some basic background on Wilhelm and then we will get into the Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albrecht was born on January 27, 1859, at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin.  He was the first child of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (the future Friedrich III, German Emperor) and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, and the first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, whose names he was given.

Wilhelm was related to many European royals.  His sister Sophie was the Queen Consort of Greece.  Among his first cousins were King George V of the United Kingdom, Queen Maud of Norway, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania, Duke Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Duke Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain.

1888 was called the Year of the Three Emperors.  On March 9, 1888, Wilhelm’s grandfather Wilhelm I, German Emperor died. Already ill with throat cancer, Wilhelm’s father became Friedrich III, German Emperor.  His reign lasted only 99 days as he died on June 15, 1888 and Wilhelm became German Emperor at the age of 29.

Wilhelm was very militaristic and wanted to increase the strength of Germany’s armed forces, particularly the German Imperial Navy which he wanted to be the equal of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. Although Wilhelm appeared to have some doubts after the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Serbia (see his translated memoirs), Wilhelm incited Austria-Hungary to take revenge against Serbia for the assassination. Events worsened throughout July of 1914 resulting in the beginning of World War I in August of 1914. Years before the start of World War I, Germany had developed the Schlieffen Plan, a one-front war-winning offensive against France which was the thinking behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on August 4, 1914.

In the aftermath of World War I, Germany had a revolution that resulted in the replacement of the monarchy with a republic. Wilhelm abdicated on November 9, 1918. On November 10, 1918, Wilhelm Hohenzollern crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands, never to return to Germany. On June 4, 1941, Wilhelm II, the former German Emperor and King of Prussia, died of a pulmonary embolism at Huis Doorn, his home in exile in Doorn, The Netherlands. He was 82 years old and had lived at Huis Doorn since 1920.

Alfred Nobel‘s will stated that the Peace Prize should be given “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses” and the prize should be decided “by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting,” the Storting being the Norwegian Parliament.

The nomination archives at Nobel Prize official website do indicate that Wilhelm II, German Emperor was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, all by university professors: in 1911 by Benjamin Ide Wheeler and twice in 1917 by The Faculty of law at the Ottoman University of Istanbul and also by Robert Holtzmann.  According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a Nobel Peace Prize nominator must be from one of several categories including “University professors, professors emeriti and associate professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology, and religion; university rectors and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes.” To see how the Nobel Peace Prize process of nomination and selection works see
http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/

The 1911 nominator Benjamin Ide Wheeler was an American Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University and then served as President of the University of California at Berkley. At the time of the 1911 nomination, a number of articles in Germany and around the world called Wilhelm Friedenskaiser, in English, Emperor of Peace. Benjamin Ide Wheeler had met Wilhelm and according to The Intimate Papers of Colonel House: Behind the Political Curtain 1912-1915 (page 31): Wilhelm “had told him that his object in building a navy was not to threaten England, but to add prestige to Germany’s commerce upon the seven seas. He had spoken of how impossible war should be between England and Germany, or, in fact, how utterly foolish any general European war would be. He thinks the coming antagonism is between the Asiatics and the Western peoples and that within twenty years the Western peoples will recognize this and stand together more or less as a unit. Wheeler told of how narrowly a general European war was averted last March over the Balkan imbroglio, and how the Emperor thinks he saved the day by his suggestion of creating the State of Albania.’ The Kaiser told Wheeler that he had warned Russia if they attacked Austria, he would strike them immediately. The Kaiser also told him he felt kindly toward England and that he was Queen Victoria’s favorite grandchild.”

The 1917 nominators were the Faculty of Law at the Ottoman University of Istanbul and Robert Holtzmann, Professor of History at the University of Breslau. Breslau was then part of Germany. Now it is Wrocław, Poland. I could no information on the rationale for the two nominations. The Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) was in the same alliance as Germany during World War I. Holtzmann had fought with the Imperial German Army on the Western Front in the years 1914-1916 and was badly wounded in 1916.

Wilhelm II, German Emperor was not the only royal nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917. Albert I, King of the Belgians, who was on the opposite side in the World War I and whose country had been invaded and occupied by Germany, was nominated “for his national sacrifice in order to uphold the idea of international law during the war.”

On December 10, 1917, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Red Cross which continues to do worthwhile work around the world.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1917/press.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/red-cross-is-awarded-nobel-peace-prize

Works Cited

• 21, Leben im. Leben im 21. Jahrhundert. 2016. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
• “31 ‘House longed to get good accomplished and was content that others should have the credit .’ VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODON THE INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL.” n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
• 2016, Nobel Media AB. Join us: 2016. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
• Abrufstatistik. “Robert Holtzmann.” Wikipedia. N.p.: Wikimedia Foundation, 1946. Web. 17 Dec.
• Duffy, Michael. A multimedia history of world war One. 2000. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
• “Nobel peace prize.” Wikipedia. N.p.: Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec. 2016. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.
• Susan. “Wilhelm II, German Emperor and king of Prussia.” German Royals. Unofficial Royalty, 4 June 2013. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.

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Timeline: February 1, 1916 – February 28, 1917

• February 1 – Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare
• February 23 – Second Battle of Kut in Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), British recapture the city
• February 23 – April 5 – Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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February 1917 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

2nd Lieutenant The Honorable George Cecil Rowley

• son of Hercules Edward Rowley, 4th Baron Langford and Georgina Mary Sutton
• born August 18, 1896 in Agher, County Meath, Ireland
• Second Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps
• killed in action February 17, 1917 in France, age 20
• buried at Regina Trench Cemetery in Grandcourt, France

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by Susan Flantzer

• Commander The Honorable Richard Orlando Beaconsfield Bridgeman
• Timeline: January 1, 1917 – January 31, 1917
• A Note About German Titles
• January 1917 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

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Commander The Honorable Richard Orlando Beaconsfield Bridgeman

The Honorable Richard Orlando Beaconsfield Bridgeman was born on February 28, 1879 in the Chelsea section of London, England. He was the sixth of the seven children of George Cecil Orlando Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford and Lady Ida Frances Annabella Lumley, daughter of Richard George Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough.

Bridgeman has a couple of connections to royalty. His mother served for 35 years as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, wife of King George V, first while she was Princess of Wales and then also when she was Queen Consort. In addition, one of Richard’s sisters, Lady Margaret Alice Bridgeman, married John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch and was the mother of Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott who married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, son of King George V. Therefore, Bridgeman was the uncle of Lady Alice and is the great uncle of the current Duke of Gloucester who is also named Richard.

Bridgeman was christened on April 10, 1879 at the Castle Bromwich Hall church with close family friend, former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, as one of his godparents. He grew up with his six siblings at Castle Bromwich Hall and at Weston Park.

Bridgeman’s six siblings:

• Lady Beatrice Bridgeman (1870 – 1952), married Colonel Rt. Hon. Ernest Pretyman, had issue
• Lady Margaret Bridgeman (1872 – 1954), married John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, had issue
• Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford (1873 – 1957), married The Hon. Margaret Bruce, had issue
• Lady Helena Bridgeman (1875 – 1947), married Osbert Molyneux, 6th Earl of Sefton, had issue
• Lady Florence Bridgeman (1877 – 1936), married Ronald Norman, had issue
• Lieutenant-Colonel The Hon. Henry Bridgeman (1882 – 1972), married Joan Constable-Maxwell, had issue

Bridgeman joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen. He later commanded gunboats in China and a destroyer in the North Sea, and served during the Boer War. In 1911, Bridgeman served as First Lieutenant aboard the RMS Medina which took King George V and Queen Mary to India for the Delhi Durbar.  In 1914, during World War I, Bridgeman served as Commander of HMS Hyacinth, a ship of the East Coast of Africa Blockading Squadron.  In 1915, during the operation to destroy the German cruiser SMS Königsberg, Bridgeman participated in preliminary reconnoissances as an observer in seaplanes. With the use of his sketches and photographs, it was possible to determine the correct position of Königsberg and severely damage it. For his work on that mission, Bridgeman received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

On January 6, 1917, Bridgeman, acting as the observer, set off on a reconnaissance flight over the Rufiji River Delta with pilot and aviation pioneer Edwin Moon. They were forced to land because of engine trouble and landed in a creek of the Rufiji River Delta. Forced to destroy the seaplane to avoid its capture by the Germans, Bridgeman and Edwin Moon then spent three days in the delta trying to avoid capture. During this time they had little or nothing to eat and had to continually swim across the creeks because the vegetation on the banks was impenetrable. On January 7, they constructed a raft from the window frame of a house. After two days of drifting on the raft, they were swept out to sea on the morning of January 9. Bridgeman was not a strong swimmer and died of exhaustion and exposure. Edwin Moon tried to keep Bridgeman’s body on the raft, but it slipped off into the sea. After Moon had been on the raft for thirteen hours, the tide turned and the raft was tossed upon the shore. Moon was rescued by natives who handed him over to the Germans. The body of Commander The Honorable Richard Bridgeman washed ashore a few days

After Moon had been on the raft for thirteen hours, the tide turned and the raft was tossed upon the shore. Moon was rescued by local villagers who handed him over to the Germans. The body of Commander The Honorable Richard Bridgeman washed ashore a few days afterward and was buried by the Germans. Moon was held in a prisoner of war camp until November of 1917. After his release from the prisoner of war camp, Moon, who had previously received a Distinguished Service Order (DSO), received a bar for his DSO for the display of “the greatest gallantry in attempting to save the life of his companion.” Bridgeman’s remains were later re-buried in the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery now in Tanzania.

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Timeline: January 1, 1916 – January 31, 1917

• January 3–4 – Battle of Behobeho in Behobeho, German East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania)
• January 9 – Battle of Rafa at the Sinai-Palestine border
• January 11 – March 13 – British raid the Ancre in France
• January 16 – German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico, instructing him to propose to the Mexican government an alliance against the United States

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army. German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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January 1917 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Commander The Honorable Richard Orlando Beaconsfield Bridgeman (see above)

• son of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford and Lady Ida Lumley
• born February 28, 1879
• unmarried
• Commander in the Royal Navy
• died during active service in East Africa January 9, 1917, age 37
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p2786.htm#i27860

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Henry Gorell Barnes, 2nd Baron Gorell

• son of John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell and Mary Humpston Mitchell
• born January 21, 1882
• unmarried
• Major in the 7th London Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery
• killed in action in Belgium January 16, 1917, age 34
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p42416.htm#i424157

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Sub-Lieutenant The Honorable Alan Boyle de Blaquiere

• son of William de Blaquiere, 6th Baron de Blaquiere of Ardkill and Lucienne Desbarats
• born March 28, 1895
• unmarried
• Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy
• lost at sea in the HMS Laurentic off the coast of Ireland January 25, 1917, age 21
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p5583.htm#i55829

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Brigadier General The Honorable Walter Long

• eldest son of Walter Hume Long, 1st Viscount Long and Lady Dorothy Boyle
• born July 26, 1879 in London, England
• married 1910 The Honorable Sibell Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, had one child Walter Francis David Long, 2nd Viscount Long
• Brigadier General in the 2nd Dragoons
• hit by a shell while inspecting the trenches in Hebuterne, France January 27, 1917, age 37
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3569.htm#i35688

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by Susan Flantzer

• December 29/30, 1916: Murder of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
• Timeline: December 1, 1916 – December 31, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• December 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

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December 29/30, 1916: Murder of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

On November 26, 1894, in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, Nicholas II, Emperor of All the Russias married Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, the youngest surviving daughter of Ludwig, Grand Duke IV of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria.  Upon her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, Alix was given the name Alexandra Feodorovna. After giving birth to four daughters during the first seven years of her marriage, Alexandra felt great pressure to provide an heir. Finally, in 1904, she gave birth to a son, Alexei. However, it would soon become apparent that she was a carrier of hemophilia, and her young son was a sufferer. This would cause great pain to Alexandra, and great measures were taken to protect him from harm and to hide the illness from the Russian people. When Alexei’s illness eventually became public knowledge, it led to more dislike for Alexandra, with many of the Russian people blaming her for the heir’s illness.
Unofficial Royalty: Hemophilia

After working with many physicians to help Alexei who suffered greatly, Alexandra turned to mystics and faith healers. This led to her close, disastrous relationship with Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, a Russian peasant and mystical faith healer. Several times Rasputin appeared to have brought Alexei back from the brink of death, which further cemented Alexandra’s reliance on him. To many historians and experts, this relationship would contribute greatly to the fall of the Russian monarchy.

Rasputin became an influential figure in Saint Petersburg, especially after August 1915, when Nicholas II took supreme command of the Russian armies fighting in World War I. Eventually, a group of conspirators plotted to murder Rasputin in hopes of ending his influence over the Imperial Family.

The conspirators were led by two men, one a member of the Imperial Family and one who married into the Imperial Family. His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was the second child and only son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, a son of Alexander II, Emperor of All the Russias, and Princess Alexandra of Greece, a daughter of King George I of Greece and Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia. Therefore, Dmitri was the first cousin of Nicholas II as their fathers were brothers. (A side note, Dmitri is also the first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as Dmitri’s mother and Philip’s father were siblings.) Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov was a Russian aristocrat who was wealthier than any of the Romanovs. Felix married Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia, Nicholas II’s only niece, the daughter of his sister Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia.

Along with Dmitri and Felix, Vladimir Purishkevich, a deputy of the Duma, the Russian legislature, was one of the main conspirators. Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert, a physician, and Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin, a lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, also were participants. On the night of December 29-30, 1916, Felix invited Rasputin to Moika Palace, his home in St. Petersburg, promising Rasputin that his wife Irina would be there, although she was not there. According to his memoir, Felix brought Rasputin to a soundproof room in a part of the wine cellar and offered Rasputin tea and petit fours laced with a large amount of cyanide, but the poison had no effect. Felix then offered Rasputin wine, and after an hour Rasputin was fairly drunk. The other conspirators were waiting in a room on another floor of the palace and Felix then went upstairs and came back with Dmitri’s revolver. He shot Rasputin in the chest and the wounds appeared to be serious enough to cause death. However, Rasputin escaped, struggling up the stairs and opening an unlocked door to the courtyard. Apparently, Purishkevich heard the noise, went out to the courtyard, and shot Rasputin four times, missing three times. Rasputin fell down in the snow. Again, Rasputin should have been dead, but he was still moving. One of the conspirators shot him in the forehead. Rasputin’s body was thrown off the Bolshoy Petrovsky Bridge into an ice-hole in the Malaya Neva River. Rasputin’s body was found a few days later.

After Rasputin’s murder, the St. Petersburg authorities refused to arrest the conspirators because the murder they committed was considered acceptable. Instead, Dmitri was exiled to Persia (now Iran), a move that most likely saved his life during the Russian Revolution, and Felix was exiled to his estate in Rakitnoje, near Belgorod, Russia and the Ukraine border.

After the Russian Revolution, Dmitri lived in exile in Paris where he had an affair with the fashion designer Coco Chanel. He married American heiress Audrey Emery in 1926, but the couple divorced in 1937. The marriage produced one child, Paul Ilyinsky, who was an American citizen, served as a US Marine in the Korean War, and was elected mayor of Palm Beach, Florida. Dmitri died from tuberculosis at a Swiss sanatorium in 1942 at the age of 50.

Felix and his wife Irina escaped Russia in 1919 aboard the British battleship HMS Marlborough along with Irina’s grandmother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Princess Dagmar of Denmark) and other members of the Imperial Family. Felix and Irina lived in exile in Paris. Felix died in 1967 at the age of 80 and Irina died three years later at the age of 74.

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Timeline: December 1, 1916 – December 31, 1916

• December 1 – Battle of the Arges, a phase of the Battle of Bucharest, in Bucharest, Romania
• December 1 – January 18, 1917 – Allies capture Yanbu at Yanbu, Hejaz Vilayet (now is Saudi Arabia)
• December 6 – The Germans occupy Bucharest, capital of Romania moved to Iaşi
• December 23 – Battle of Magdhaba in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
• December 23 – 29 – Christmas Battles in the Tirelis Swamp near Riga, Latvia
• December 29/30 – Grigori Rasputin is murdered by a group of conspirators, led by Prince Felix Youssupov, husband of Tsar Nicholas II’s niece, and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Tsar Nicholas II’s first cousin

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire. The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army. German titles may be used in Royals/Nobles/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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December 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website. If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

The Honorable Flight Sub-Lieutenant Arthur Cameron Corbett

• younger son of Archibald Cameron Corbett, 1st Baron Rowallan and Alice Mary Polson
• born March 6, 1898
• unmarried
• Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service
• killed in action at Mericourt-l’Abbe, France December 4, 1916, age 18
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p52570.htm#i525696

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by Susan Flantzer

• November 18, 1916: End of the Battle of the Somme
• November 21, 1916: Death of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary
• Timeline: November 1, 1916 – November 30, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• November 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

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November 18, 1916: End of the Battle of the Somme

“Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word.” These were the words of Friedrich Steinbrecher, a 24-year-old German officer and theology student who fought in the Battle of the Somme and survived, but was killed in action in 1917 in Champagne, France.

The Battle of the Somme was a 141-day battle, more accurately called the Somme Offensive, that lasted from July 1, 1916 until November 18, 1916. Fought in northern France near the Somme River, the battle pitted the British and French forces against the German forces. By November 18, 1916, when the battle ended, British and French forces had penetrated only 6 miles (9.7 km) into German-occupied territory and more than 1,300,000 soldiers from all countries involved were dead or wounded, making the Battle of the Somme one of the bloodiest battles in history. The British and the French won a Pyrrhic victory, a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is equivalent to a defeat. The phrase Pyrrhic victory is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War.

To learn more about the Battle of the Somme, see:

• • First World War: The Battle of the Somme, 1916
  • The Great War: The Battle of the Somme, 1916
  • BBC: The Battle of the Somme: 141 Days of Horror
  • Eyewitness to History: A Death at the Battle of the Somme, 1916

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November 21, 1916: Death of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary

Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary died on November 21, 1916, in the middle of World War I, at the age of 86 at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. He is the third longest reigning European monarch (nearly 68 years) after King Louis XIV of France (72 years) and Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein (70 years). During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was part of the Central Powers or Quadruple Powers along with the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Born on August 18, 1830 at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, 18-year-old Franz Joseph succeeded to the throne on December 2, 1848 upon the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand who suffered from epilepsy, hydrocephalus, and neurological problems.

Franz Joseph married Elisabeth of Bavaria (known as Sisi) on April 24, 1854 at the Augustinerkirche, the parish church of the imperial court of the Habsburgs, a short walk from Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The ceremony was conducted by Cardinal Joseph Othmar Rauscher, Archbishop of Vienna with 1,000 guests in attendance including 70 bishops.

The couple had four children:

• • Archduchess Sophie (1855 – 1857), died in childhood
  • Archduchess Gisela (1856 – 1932), married Prince Leopold of Bavaria, had issue
  • Crown Prince Rudolf (1858 – 1889), married Princess Stephanie of Belgium, had issue
  • Archduchess Marie Valerie (1868 – 1924), married Archduke Franz Salvator, Prince of Tuscany, had issue

Franz Joseph’s family endured several tragic, violent deaths:

• June 19, 1867: Franz Joseph’s brother, Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was executed by a firing squad.
• January 30, 1889: Franz Joseph’s only son and heir to the throne, Crown Prince Rudolf, in an apparent suicide plot, shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera and then shot himself at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods.
• September 10, 1898: Franz Joseph’s wife, Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) was stabbed to death by a 25-year-old Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni while walking to the shore of Lake Geneva to catch a steamship.
• June 28, 1914: Franz Joseph’s nephew and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, an act which led to the start of World War I.
  Unofficial Royalty: June 28, 1914 – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne

 

In early November of 1916, Franz Joseph was suffering from a chronic lung inflammation which then developed into pneumonia. Despite a persistent high fever, the 86-year-old emperor continued his daily routine with his immense workload literally until the day he died. In the afternoon of November 21, 1916, Franz Joseph’s condition rapidly deteriorated, but he remained at his desk working until 7 PM when he allowed his valet to help him to bed. Franz Joseph died shortly after 9 PM. His great nephew succeeded him as Emperor Karl I of Austria, but only reigned for two years as the monarchy was abolished at the end of World War I.

Franz Joseph’s body lay in state for three days at Hofburg Palace. The funeral took place on November 30, 1916. With all the bells of Vienna’s churches ringing and thousands of mourners lining the streets of Vienna, the coffin of the late Emperor was taken from Hofburg Palace to St. Stephen’s Cathedral where a short service was attended by Emperor Karl I, his wife Empress Zita (of Bourbon-Parma) and the heir to the throne four-year-old Crown Prince Otto.

After the service, the Emperor, the Empress, and the Crown Prince were joined by King Ludwig III of Bavaria, King Friedrich August of Saxony, Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany representing his father Wilhelm II, German Emperor to follow the funeral cortege on foot as the remains of Franz Joseph were transported to the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in the Capuchin Church, the traditional burial place of the Habsburgs, where Franz Joseph was buried between his wife and his son. Two days later, on the 68th anniversary of Franz Joseph’s accession to the throne, a final requiem mass was celebrated in the Hofburg Palace chapel attended by the Imperial Family and court dignitaries.
Unofficial Royalty: A Visit to the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in Vienna
You Tube: Funeral Procession of Emperor Franz Joseph

See Unofficial Royalty: Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary for a more complete biography.

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Timeline: November 1, 1916 – November 30, 1916

• July 1 – November 18 – Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France
• October – November – First Battle of the Crna Bend, near the Crna River in Macedonia and Serbia, a phase of the Monastir Offensive
• October 1 – November 5 – Battle of Le Transloy in Le Transloy, France, last stage of the Battle of the Somme
• October 1 – November 11 – Battle of Ancre Heights in Ancre, France, last stage of the Battle of the Somme
• November 1–4 – Ninth Battle of the Isonzo in the Soča River valley in present-day Slovenia
• November 13–18 – Battle of the Ancre (closing phase of the Battle of the Somme) near the Ancre River in Picardy, France
• November 18 – The Battle of the Somme ends with enormous casualties and an English-French advantage
• November 21 – HMHS Britannic sinks after hitting a German mine
• November 21 – Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, dies and is succeeded by Karl I (see above)
• November 25 – December 3 – Battle of Bucharest, a phase of the conquest of Romania, in Romania, the capital of Romania
• November 28 – Prunaru Charge, a phase of the Battle of Bucharest, Romanian cavalry desperately charge into enemy lines

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army. German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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November 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website. If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Captain Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas and 5th Baron Dingwall

• son of The Honorable Auberon Herbert, younger son of Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon and Lady Florence Cowper, daughter of George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper
• born May 25, 1876
• unmarried
• Captain in the Royal Flying Corps
• wounded by bullets from German fighter aircraft during a flight over Haplincourt, France November 3, 1916, died of his wounds the same day, age 40
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p17051.htm#i170502

Prince Heinrich of Bavaria

• only child of Prince Arnulf of Bavaria, youngest son of Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, and Princess Therese of Liechtenstein, daughter of Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein
• born June 24, 1884 in Munich, Bavaria (Germany)
• unmarried
• Major in the in charge of the 3rd Battalion of the Deutsches Alpenkorps
• killed in action at Monte Sule, Transylvania, Romania on November 8, 1916, age 32
• buried at Theatinerkirche in Munich, Bavaria

Lieutenant Commander The Honorable Philip Sidney Campbell

• 3rd son of Patrick Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy and Emily MacCullagh
• born February 5, 1893
• unmarried
• Lieutenant Commander in the Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Division
• killed in action at Beaumont-Hamel, France during the Battle of the Somme November 13, 1916, age 23
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p31824.htm#i318236

Lieutenant The Honorable Vere Sidney Tudor Harmsworth

• son of Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere and Mary Lilian Share
• born September 25, 1895
• unmarried
• Lieutenant in the Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division
• elder brother Captain Hon. Harold Alfred Vyvyan St. George Harmsworth also died in World War I (on February 12, 1918)
• killed in action at Beaumont-Hamel, France during the Battle of the Somme November 13, 1916, age 21
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p7351.htm#i73503

Lieutenant The Honorable Frederic Sydney Trench

• eldest son of Frederic Oliver Trench, 3rd Baron Ashtown and Violet Grace Cosby
• born 9 December 9, 1894 at Woodlawn, Kilconnell, County Galway, Ireland
• unmarried
• Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps
• killed in action November 16, 1916
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3040.htm#i30399

Prince Heinrich XLI Reuss

• son of Prince Heinrich XXIV Reuss of Köstritz and Princess Elisabeth Reuss of Köstritz
• born September 2, 1892 in Ernstbrunn, Austria
• unmarried
• killed in action at Bivolita, Romania November 29, 1916, age 24
• http://thepeerage.com/p11134.htm#i111340

by Susan Flantzer

• Major John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock and Captain Percy Robert Herbert, Viscount Clive
• Timeline: October 1, 1916 – October 31, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• October 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

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During October of 1916, two British officers, one a peer and one the heir of a peer, died from wounds received in the terrible Battle of the Somme which lasted from July 1 – November 18, 1916. Both men were from families whose peerages had Welsh roots and both families suffered multiple tragedies.

Major John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock

Major John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock was born in London, England on April 25, 1870. He was the eldest of the four children of John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock and Georgiana Marcia Maclean, the daughter of Sir Charles Maclean, 9th Baronet of Morvaren.  John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock was appointed High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1875 and served as Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire from 1880–1885. In 1892, he was created Baron Llangattock of The Hendre in the County of Monmouth. The family home, The Hendre, from the Welsh words hen (meaning “old”) and dre (meaning “farmstead”), was located in Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally built in the eighteenth century as a hunting lodge and was expanded by the Rolls family throughout the nineteenth century. Today it is the clubhouse of the Rolls of Monmouth Golf Club.

John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock’s three younger siblings:

• The Honorable Henry Allan Rolls (August 5, 1871 – June 26, 1916), unmarried
• The Honorable Eleanor Georgiana Rolls (October 9, 1872 – September 15, 1961), married Sir John Courtown Edward Shelley, 6th Baronet of Castle Goring, no issue
• The Honorable Charles Stewart Rolls (August 28, 1877 – July 12, 1910)

The most famous member of the family was the 2nd Baron’s youngest sibling, Charles Stewart Rolls, a motoring and aviation pioneer. In 1904, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce began a partnership that would result in the famous British car manufacturing company Rolls-Royce Limited. In late October – early November 1900, the 1st Baron Llangattock and his wife were hosts to TRH The Duke and Duchess of York (the future King George V and Queen Mary), who stayed at The Hendre. The Duke and Duchess were taken on motorcar excursions by Charles Rolls, probably the first time that the royal couple had been in a car. Unfortunately, on July 12, 1910, Charles Rolls died at the age of 32 when the tail of his Wright Flyer airplane broke off during a flying display. He has the first British person to be killed in an airplane accident.

John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford where he received a BA in 1893, BCL (Bachelor of Civil Law) in 1895, and MA in 1896. He was called to the Bar in 1895 and admitted to the Inner Temple in 1896. John served for several years with the 1st Monmouth Volunteer Artillery, retiring with the rank of Captain and Honorary Major. He also served as High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1900 and Mayor of Monmouth in 1906 – 1907. John was a talented musician and was one of the finest amateur organists in Great Britain. In 1912, upon the death of his father, John became the 2nd Baron Llangattock.

In January of 1915, John joined the 4th Welsh Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.  He attained the rank of Major and served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders during World War I. He was wounded while on observation duty during the Battle of the Somme, and died on October 31, 1916 at the age of 46 at the military hospital in Boulogne, France. John was buried at the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery in France.  A former commanding officer wrote: “He could have accepted less dangerous work, but he and his battery had done so well in the training that, having been selected as the 1st Battery in the Division for efficiency, he felt it his duty to go out with the battery. The country, county and brigade have lost in Major Lord Llangattock a well-tried and sincere friend.”

Only a few months before, on June 26, 1916, John’s brother Henry Allan Rolls, a Lieutenant in the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers, had died due to wounds received in World War I. As John never married and his two brothers predeceased him, the title Baron Llangattock became extinct upon his death.

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Captain Percy Robert Herbert, Viscount Clive

Captain Percy Robert Herbert, Viscount Clive, born on December 2, 1892, was the eldest of the three children of George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis and Violet Ida Eveline Sackville Lane-Fox, 16th Baroness Darcy de Knayth in her own right.  As the eldest son and heir of the 4th Earl of Powis, Percy used his father’s subsidiary title Viscount Clive as a courtesy title. The seat of the Earl of Powis was the medieval Powis Castle near Welshpool, in Powys, Wales. One of the family ancestors was Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, Commander-in-Chief of British India who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal, India.

Percy had a younger sister and brother:

• Lady Hermione Gwladys Herbert (September 17, 1900 – May 25, 1995), married Roberto Lucchesi-Palli, 11th Duca della Grazia, had one daughter
• Mervyn Horatio Herbert Herbert, 17th Lord Darcy de Knayth (May 7, 1904 – March 23, 1943), killed in action during World War II, married Vida Cuthbert, had one daughter, Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth

Percy was educated at Eton College, where he developed a passion for cricket. He then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.  In October of 1913, he joined the Scots Guards, part of the Guards Division, and one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. At the beginning of World War I, Percy was in France fighting against the onrush of German troops on Paris and Calais. Shortly before Christmas of 1914, he was invalided home suffering from frostbitten feet. Upon his recovery, Percy was the thirteenth officer commissioned into the newly formed Welsh Guards in 1915.

Percy was shot in the thigh which fractured the femur, the bone in the thigh, at the Battle of Flers-Courcellette, part of the Battle of the Somme on September 25, 1916. His family arranged for him to come home to England for treatment, and he arrived at Southampton on September 28, 1916. He was taken to King Edward VII Hospital in London, England. The following day an operation was performed to remove the bullet. However, sepsis (blood poisoning) and a serious hemorrhage from a main artery occurred and Percy Herbert, Viscount Clive died on October 13, 1916, at age 23, 18 days after being wounded. He was buried in the churchyard at Christ Church in Welshpool, Wales within sight of Powis Castle.

Upon Percy’s death, his brother Mervyn became the heir and used the courtesy style Viscount Clive. In 1929, Percy’s mother died in a car accident and she was also buried in the churchyard at Christ Church. She had been the 16th Baroness Darcy de Knayth in her own right and her surviving son Mervyn succeeded to her title while retaining the higher title of Viscount Clive by courtesy. Mervyn who was 12 years younger than Percy, enlisted in the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II in 1939.  Sadly, Mervyn also was killed in action while flying with the No. 157 Squadron RAF, a night fighter squadron. He was also buried in the churchyard at Christ Church, and his only child, four-year-old Davina, became the 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth as females had succession rights to the peerage. Percy’s father, George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, died in 1952 at the age of 90. As he had no surviving sons and no grandsons, his cousin Edward Robert Henry Herbert, became the 5th Earl of Powis.

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Timeline: October 1, 1916 – October 31, 1916

• July 1 – November 18 – Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France
• October – November – First Battle of the Crna Bend, near the Crna River in Macedonia and Serbia, a phase of the Monastir Offensive
• October 1 – November 5 – Battle of Le Transloy in Le Transloy, France, last stage of the Battle of the Somme
• October 1 – November 11 – Battle of Ancre Heights in Ancre, France, last stage of the Battle of the Somme
• October 9 – 12 – Eighth Battle of the Isonzo in Monfalcone, Italy
• October 19 – 25 – Second Battle of Cobadin in Rasova, Cobadin, and Cernavodă, Romania , a phase of the conquest of Romania
• October 24 – The French recapture Fort Douaumont near Verdun, France

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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October 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Captain Percy Robert Herbert, Viscount Clive

• elder son of George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis and Violet Ida Eveline Sackville Lane-Fox, 16th Baroness Darcy de Knayth
• born December 2, 1892
• unmarried
• Captain 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards
• died from wounds received in action at the Battle of the Somme October 13, 1916 at the King Edward VII Hospital in London, England, age 23
• http://thepeerage.com/p4556.htm#i45557

Major John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock

• son of John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock and Georgiana Marcia Maclean, daughter of Sir Charles Maclean, 9th Baronet of Morvaren
• born April 25, 1870 in London, England
• unmarried
• Major in the  4th Welsh Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
• died from wounds received in action at the Battle of the Somme October 31, 1916 at the military hospital in Boulogne, France, age 46

by Susan Flantzer

• Raymond Asquith and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel
• Timeline: September 1, 1916 – September 30, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• September 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

Note: While researching the deaths for September 1916, I noticed that a lot of British soldiers were killed in action on September 15, 1916, and I wondered why. It was the first time in history that three Coldstream Guard battalions from the British Army had attacked together. Seventeen officers and 690 other ranks advanced into the Battle of the Somme, that dreadful battle that lasted from July 1 – November 18, 1918 resulting in more than 1,300,000 soldiers from all countries involved dead or wounded. Tragically, British fourteen officers and 469 other ranks were killed on September 15, 1916. The British peers and sons of peers listed below were some of the fourteen officers killed. One of the officers killed was the eldest son of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at that time. Another was the great uncle of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

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In September of 1916, there were two high-profile deaths in battle: Raymond Asquith, the eldest son of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at that time, and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel, a nephew of the German Emperor and also a great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

Raymond Asquith

Raymond Asquith was born on November 6, 1878 in Hampstead, Middlesex, England. He was the first child of Herbert Henry Asquith and his first wife, Helen Kelsall Melland, daughter of a Manchester doctor.  Herbert Henry Asquith came from a middle class family and had won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. At the time of Raymond’s birth, Asquith was just starting what would become a prosperous law career.  Asquith was elected to Parliament in 1886. By 1892, Asquith was serving in the Cabinet as Home Secretary.  Asquith continued to rise, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from April 5, 1908 – December 5, 1916. In 1925, after Raymond’s death, his father Herbert Henry Asquith was created 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

Raymond’s parents had five children before his mother died in 1891 of typhoid fever. In 1894, Raymond’s father made a second marriage to Margot Tennant. Five more children were born from this marriage, but only two survived childhood.

Raymond’s siblings:

• Herbert Asquith (1881 – 1947), poet, novelist and lawyer, married Lady Cynthia Charteris, also a writer
• Arthur Asquith (1883 – 1939)
• Violet Asquith Bonham Carter, created a life peer as Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury (1887 – 1969), married Sir Maurice “Bongie” Bonham Carter, her father’s Principal Private Secretary, grandmother of the actress Helena Bonham Carter
• Cyril Asquith, Baron Asquith of Bishopstone (1890 – 1954), created a life peer, married Anne Stephanie Pollock

Raymond’s half-siblings:

• Elizabeth Asquith, later Princess Antoine Bibesco (1897 – 1945), married Prince Antoine Bibesco, a Romanian diplomat
• Anthony Asquith (1902 – 1968), a successful film director

Raymond attended Summerfield, a boys’ independent day and boarding preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford as did some of his brothers. He then continued his education at Winchester College in Winchester, Gloucestershire, a 600 year old a private school for boys in the British public school tradition. At Winchester College, Raymond won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Latin Essay and the Warden and Fellows’ Prizes for Greek Prose and Verse. In 1897, Raymond began his studies at Balliol College, Oxford and graduated with first-class honors. He was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1902, While at Oxford, Raymond was a member of “the Coterie,” a group of Edwardian socialites and intellectuals.

In 1904, Raymond was called to the bar by the Inner Temple and started to lay the foundations of a successful law practice. He was engaged as junior counsel in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration and in the inquiry into the loss of the Titanic. Shortly before the war he was appointed a junior counsel to the Inland Revenue and adopted as prospective Liberal Candidate for Parliament for Derby.

On July 25, 1907, Raymond married Katharine Frances Horner. The couple had three children:

• Lady Helen Asquith (1908–2000), unmarried
• Lady Perdita Asquith (1910–1996), married William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton
• Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1916–2011), married Anne Mary Celestine Palairet

Julian, Raymond’s only son, was born a few months before his father’s death. He was always known as “Trim”.  Raymond referred to his newborn son as “Trimalchio” (a character in Petronius’s Satyricon) in a letter written from the Front on the day after the baby’s birth. Raymond did get to see his newborn son while on leave from the war.  Julian succeeded his grandfather in 1928 as the 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith. He lived a long life, dying in 2011 at the age of 94. Julian’s son, Raymond, succeeded him as the 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

Telegraph: Obituary – The Earl of Oxford and Asquith

Shortly after World War I broke out, Raymond was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 16th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment. In August of 1915, he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards and assigned as a staff officer, out of combat. However, Raymond requested to be returned to active duty, and the request was granted before the Battle of the Somme. While leading the first half of 4 Company in an attack near Ginchy, France on September 15, 1916, at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, a battle of the larger campaign, the Battle of the Somme, Raymond was shot in the chest. He famously lit a cigarette to hide the seriousness of his injuries so that his men would continue the attack. When Raymond was dying on the battlefield, he gave the doctor his flask to give to his father, Prime Minister Asquith. His father kept the flask by the side of his bed. Raymond, age 37, died while being carried back to the British lines.

Raymond Asquith was buried at Guillemont Road Cemetery in Guillemont, France, near where the Battle of the Somme took place. His headstone is inscribed: “Small time, but in that small most greatly lived this star of England” – the concluding line from Shakespeare’s Henry V, about the warrior king who had died in his thirties after campaigns in France.

A week later, on September 22, 1916, another death in battle touched the Asquith family. Lieutenant The Honorable Edward Wyndham Tennant, eldest son of Edward Priaulx Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner was killed in action at Guillemont, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 19. Edward was the nephew of Margot Tennant who was the second wife of Raymond Asquith’s father, Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith. Edward and Raymond had been friends and are buried nearby each other.

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Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel was born on November 24, 1893 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Hessen, Germany. He was the oldest of the six sons of Princess Margarethe of Prussia and Friedrich Karl, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse. Through his mother Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was a great grandson of Queen Victoria and a nephew of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Friedrich Wilhelm had five younger brother, including two sets of twins:

• Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel (1893–1916), unmarried, killed in action during World War I
• Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel (1894 – 1914), unmarried, killed in action during World War I
• Prince Philipp of Hesse-Kassel (1896 –1980), married Princess Mafalda of Savoy, had issue
• Prince Wolfgang of Hesse-Kassel (1896 –1989), married Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden, no issue
• Prince Richard of Hesse-Kassel (1901 – 1969), unmarried
• Prince Christoph of Hesse-Kassel (1901 –1943), married Princess Sophie of Greece (sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), had issue, killed in action during World War II

The four elder sons all served in World War I: Friedrich Wilhelm and his brother Wolfgang both served in the Thüringisches Ulanen-Regiment Nr.6 of the German Army, and Maximilian and Philipp both served in the 24th Life Dragoons (2nd Grand Ducal Hessian) of the German Army. Twins Richard and Christoph were too young. Maximilian, the second son, had been killed in action when he was severely wounded by British machine gun fire at Saint-Jean-Chappelle, near Bailleul, France on October 13, 1914. See Unofficial Royalty: October 1914 – Royalty and World War I.

On September 12, 1916, 22 year old Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was killed in action in Dobruja, Romania when his throat was slit by an enemy bayonet in close fighting. His brother Wolfgang, who was serving with the same regiment, was brought to view his brother’s body and saw the bloody dagger from the bayonet resting on his brother’s chest

Friedrich Wilhelm’s mother, who lived until 1954, had a number of family tragedies to endure:

• • Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel: second child, killed in action during World War I on October 13, 1914.  See Unofficial Royalty: October 1914 – Royalty and World War I
  • Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel: eldest child, killed in action during World War I on September 12, 1916.  See Unofficial Royalty: September 1916 – Royalty and World War I
  • Princess Mafalda of Savoy: wife of her son Prince Philipp of Hesse-Kassel, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, died in Buchenwald concentration camp on August 27, 1944 during World War II. Philipp was also imprisoned in concentration camps after his fall-out with Hitler
  • Prince Christoph of Hesse-Kassel: youngest child, killed in action during World War II on October 7, 1943
  • Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden: wife of her son Prince Wolfgang of Hesse-Kassel, killed during an American air-raid on Frankfurt am Main on January 29, 1944 during World War II. Marie Alexandra and seven other women, who were all aid workers, were killed when the cellar, in which they had taken refuge, collapsed under the weight of the building

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Timeline: September 1, 1916 – September 30, 1916

• July 1 – November 18 – Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France
• September 2–6 – Battle of Turtucaia in Turtucaia, Romania (now Tutrakan, Bulgaria), a phase of the conquest of Romania
• September 3–6 – Battle of Guillemont in Guillemont, France, intermediate phase of the Battle of the Somme
• September 5–7 – Battle of Dobrich in Dobrich, Romania (now Dobrich, Bulgaria), a phase of the conquest of Romania
• September 7–11 – Battle of Kisaki in Kisaki, German East Africa (now in Tanzania)
• September 9 – Battle of Ginchy in Gimchy, France, intermediate phase of the Battle of the Somme
• September 12 – December 11 – Monastir Offensive, set up of the Salonika Front in present-day Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia
• September 12–14 – Battle of Malka Nidzhe in Malka Nidzhe, Gornichevo, Macedonia , a phase of the Monastir Offensive
• September 12–30 – Battle of Kaymakchalan in Kaymakchalan, Greece, a phase of the Monastir Offensive
• September 14–17 – Seventh Battle of the Isonzo in Gorizia, Italy
• September 15–22 – Battle of Flers-Courcelette in Flers and Courcelette, France; the British use armored tanks for the first time in history
• September 17–19 – First Battle of Cobadin in Rasova, Cobadin, and Tuzla Romania, a phase of the conquest of Romania
• September 20 – The Brusilov Offensive in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now in Poland and Ukraine) ends with a substantial Russian success
• September 25–28 – Battle of Morval in Morval, France, part of the final stages of the Battle of the Somme
• September 26–28 – Battle of Thiepval Ridge in Thiepval, France (part of the final stages of the Battle of the Somme)
• September 29 – October 5 – Flămânda Offensive in Ryahovo, Ruse Province, Bulgaria, across the Danube from Flămânda, near Oltenița, Romania, a phase of the conquest of Romania

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

*********************************************************

September 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website.  or to The Peerage website.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (see article above)

• son of Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse (future Titular Landgrave of Hesse) and Princess Margarethe of Prussia (granddaughter of Queen Victoria)
• brother of Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel, died in action on October 13, 1914
• born November 23, 1893 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Hesse (Germany)
• unmarried
• killed in action on September 12, 1916 at Dobruja, Romania, age 22
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10406.htm#i1040511

Raymond Asquith (see article above)

• eldest son of Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1908-1916, created 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith in 1925, and his first wife Helen Kelsall Melland
• born November 11, 1878
• married 1907 Katharine Horner, had three children
• Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
• killed in action September 15, 1916 in Trones Wood, Ginchy, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 37
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p1148.htm#i11479

The Honorable Lieutenant Colonel Guy Victor Baring

• son of  Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton and The Honorable Leonora Digby
• born February 26, 1873
• Member of Parliament for Winchester, 1906–1916
• married 1903 Olive Smith, had six children
• Lieutenant Colonel, 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards
• killed in action September 15, 1916 in Ginchy, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 43
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3030.htm#i30299

 

The Honorable Captain Henry Archibald Cubitt

• eldest son of Henry Cubitt, 2nd Baron Ashcombe and Maud Calvert
• born January 3, 1892
• unmarried
• Captain in the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards
• killed in action on September 15, 1916 at Flers, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 24
• two of Henry’s five brothers also died in World War I: Alick on November 24, 1917 and William on March 24, 1918
• Henry is the great uncle of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The eldest of his three surviving brothers Roland Cubitt became the 3rd Baron Ashcombe and married Sonia Keppel. Their daughter The Honorable Rosalind Cubitt married Major Bruce Shand and they were the parents of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p6195.htm#i61948

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles William Reginald Duncombe, 2nd Earl of Feversham 

• son of William Duncombe, Viscount Helmsley (elder son of William Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham) and Lady Muriel Chetwynd-Talbot, daughter of Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury
• born May 8, 1879
• married 1904 Lady Marjorie Greville, daughter of Francis Greville, 5th Earl of Warwick, had three children
• Lieutenant Colonel in the 21st Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps
• killed in action September 15, 1916 at Flers, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 35
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p2288.htm#i22880

The Honorable 2nd Lieutenant Robert Butler Nivison

• son of Robert Nivison, 1st Baron Glendyne and Jane Wightman
• born June 7, 1895
• unmarried
• 2nd Lieutenant in the 21st Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps
• killed in action on September 15, 1916 at Flers, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 21
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p31189.htm#i311883

The Honorable Lieutenant Ronald Herbert Pike Pease

• eldest son of Herbert Pike Pease, 1st Baron Daryngton and Alice Mortimer Luckock
• born October 3, 1896
• unmarried
• Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards
• killed in action September 15, 1916 at Ginchy, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 19
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p31498.htm#i314976

The Honorable Captain Richard Philip Stanhope

• younger son of Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope and Evelyn Pennefather
• born January 1, 1885
• married 1914 Lady Beryl Le Poer Trench, daughter of William Frederick Le Poer Trench, 5th Earl of Clancarty, no children
• Captain in the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards Flers
• killed in action of September 15, 1916 at Flers, France during the Battle of Somme, age 31
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p20513.htm#i205122

Count Alexander Alekseyevich Bobrinsky

• son of Count Alexei Alekseyevich Bobrinsky and Warwara Lvova
• born October 6, 1891
• killed in action September 17, 1916, age 24
• great great great grandson of Catherine the Great and her lover Grigoriy Orlov
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=cbryant6&id=I07665

Freiherr Hubertus von Loë

• born November 3, 1890 in Cappeln, Lower Saxony, Germany
• killed in action September 20, 1916 at Bouchavesnes, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 25
• http://brigittegastelancestry.com/royal/plantagenet/degenhartvonloedesc1689.htm

Friedrich, Graf von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee

• son of Prince Maximilian von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee and Sidonie, Princess of Lobkowicz
• born May 25, 1895 in Waldsee, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• killed in action of September 20, 1916 at Rancourt, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 21
• http://www.familienbuch-euregio.eu/genius/?person=244577

Lieutenant The Honrorable Edward Wyndham Tennant 

• eldest son of Edward Priaulx Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner and Pamela Wyndham
• born July 1, 1897
• unmarried
• Lieutenant 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards
• killed in action of September 22, 1916 at Guillemont, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 19
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p4707.htm#i47064

The Honorable Lieutenant William Alastair Damer Parnell

• son of Major General Henry Parnell, 4th Baron Congleton and Elizabeth Peter Dove
• born August 30, 1894
• unmarried
• Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards
• killed in action on September 25, 1916 at Lesboeufs, France during the Battle of the Somme, age 22
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p1528.htm#i15276

by Susan Flantzer

• Hereditary Prince Emanuel of Salm-Salm and Prince Louis Murat
• Timeline: August 1, 1916 – August 31, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• August 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

Hereditary Prince Emanuel of Salm-Salm

During the month of August 1916, two princes from non-reigning houses were killed in action. Hereditary Prince Emanuel of Salm-Salm was killed in action August 19, 1915 in Pinsk, Russia (now in Belarus) and Prince Louis Murat was killed in action on August 21, 1916 at the Battle of the Somme in France.

Hereditary Prince (Erbprinz in German) Emanuel of Salm-Salm was born November 30, 1871 at Münster, Westphalia, now in Germany. He was the eldest of the eight children of Alfred, 7th Prince of Salm-Salm (Fürst zu Salm-Salm in German) and Rosa, Countess of Lützow (Gräfin von Lützow in German) from an old Mecklenburg noble family.

The Principality of Salm-Salm was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, originally located in the northwest of present-day France. In 1790, after the French Revolution, the Salm-Salm princely family fled their principality and moved to their castle in Anholt, Westphalia, now in Germany. Salm-Salm then was besieged by the revolutionary army, which blocked food supplies from reaching the state and the people of Salm-Salm were forced to surrender to France. On March 2, 1793, the French National Convention declared Salm-Salm to be a part of the French Republic. In 1802, together with the Prince of Salm-Kyrburg, the Prince of Salm-Salm was granted new territories formerly belonging to the Bishops of Münster in Westphalia. The new territory was governed in union with Salm-Kyrburg and was known as the Principality of Salm.  Each Prince had equal sovereign rights, but neither had a separate territory. Anholt Castle was the residence of the Salm-Salm family.

In 1806, the Principality of Salm became a part of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806-1813) established by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French when the Holy Roman Empire was renounced. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna, whose objective was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, gave the Principality of Salm to the Kingdom of Prussia and it became the westernmost part of the Prussian Province of Westphalia. The Principality of Salm became one of the German mediatized states, a state that was annexed to another state, while allowing certain rights to its former sovereign.

Emanuel grew up with his seven younger siblings in Anholt Castle:

• Princess Marie Emma (1874 – 1966), became a nun
• Princess Henriette (1875 – 1961), married Carlo Lucchesi Palli, 10th Prince of Campofranco, Duke of Grazia, had issue
• Prince Franz (1876 – 1964), married Maria Anna,Baronin von und zu Dalberg , had issue
• Princess Rosa (1878 – 1963), married Karl, Graf zu Solms-Laubach, had issue
• Prince Alfred (1879 – 1952), unmarried
• Princess Augusta (1881 – 1946), married Felix, Count Droste zu Vischering by Nesselrode-Reichenstein, had issue
• Princess Eleonore (1887 – 1978), married to Carl Rieniets, no issue

On May 10, 1902 in Vienna, Austria, Emanuel married Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria-Teschen, Princess of Hungary, Bohemia, and Tuscany.  Maria Christina was the eldest child of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen, a member of the House of Habsburg and the Supreme Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, and Princess Isabella of Croÿ. Maria Christina’s paternal aunt was Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, second wife of King Alfonso XII of Spain.

Emanuel and Maria Christina had five children:

• Princess Isabelle of Salm-Salm (1903 – 2009) married Felix, Graf von Loë, had issue
• Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm (1904 – 2001), married Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria, son of Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria and his wife Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria, who was the youngest child of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Elisabeth of Bavaria (“Sisi”), had issue
• Nikolaus Leopold, 8th Prince of Salm-Salm (1906 – 1988) married (1) Princess Ida of Wrede (div. 1948), had issue (2) Eleonore von Zitzewitz (div. 1961), had issue (3) Maria Moret, had issue (4) Christiane Kostecki, no issue
• Princess Cäcilie of Salm-Salm (1911 – 1991), married Franz Josef, 6th Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim and Dyck, had issue
• Prince Franz of Salm-Salm (1912 – 1917), died young

Before the start of World War I, Emanuel had been an unofficial Captain in the Imperial German Army’s Gardes du Corps, the personal bodyguard of the King of Prussia and, after 1871, of the German Emperor. He had permission to wear the Gardes du Corps’ uniform, but was not an active officer. During World War I, Emanuel served in the Imperial German Army under General Felix, Graf von Bothmer in Corps Bothmer, a unit raised to help defend the passes of the Carpathian Mountains against Russian attacks that directly threatened Hungary.

From June-September 1916, the Corps Bothmer participated in the Brusilov Offensive, named after the commander in charge of the Southwestern Front of the Imperial Russian Army, General Aleksei Brusilov. The Brusilov Offensive was a successful major Russian attack against the armies of the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, German Empire, Ottoman Empire) on the Eastern Front in an area of present-day western Ukraine. It was the high point of the Russian effort during World War I and one of the most lethal offensives in history with 1,600,000 causalities.

On the morning on August 18, 1916, Emanuel was serving as interim commander of 2nd Squadron of the Corps Bothmer, leading a squadron of about 150 horses and five officers. He received a deadly shrapnel wound to the head and died at the age of 44 without regaining consciousness, during the night in a field hospital in Pinsk, then part of the Russian Empire, but occupied by the German Empire, and now in Belarus.

Maria Christina, Emanuel’s widow, continued to live at Castle Anholt until her death in 1962 at the age of 82. She was she was buried in the royal crypt in the chapel at Castle Anholt in Westphalia.

Prince Louis Murat

Louis Marie Michel Joachim Napoleon Murat, Prince Murat was born on September 8, 1896 in Rocquencourt, Yvelines, France. He was the seventh of the eight children of Joachim Napoléon Murat, 5th Prince Murat and Marie Cécile Ney d’Elchingen. The House of Murat, collectively known as Princes of Murat, is a noble family created by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French for his brother-in-law Joachim-Napoléon Murat, Marshal of France, Admiral of France, and King of the Two Sicilies. Joachim married Napoleon’s youngest sister Caroline.  Prince Louis Murat was the great-great grandnephew of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, and the great-great-grandson of Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte and her husband Joachim Murat.

Prince Louis’ father, Joachim Napoléon Murat, 5th Prince Murat, was a childhood friend of Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial, the only child of Napoléon III, Emperor of the French and his wife Eugénie de Montijo. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, which resulted in the fall of Napoléon III, Joachim and his parents left France to accompany the Imperial Family into exile in England. Once peace returned in France, the Murats returned to France, where they acted as an intermediary between the former emperor and his son and Bonapartist movement in France, which hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. After the deaths of the former emperor and his son, Joachim continued working with the Bonapartist movement.

Prince Louis Murat had seven siblings:

• Joachim, 6th Prince Murat (1885–1938), married Louise Amélie Plantie, had issue including Joachim Murat, 7th Prince Murat who was killed in action during World War II
• Princess Marguerite (1886–1956), married Baron Edgar Lejeune who was killed in action in 1914, had issue
• Prince Pierre (1887–1888), died young
• Prince Alexandre (1889–1926) married Yvonne Gillois, had issue
• Prince Charles (1892–1973), married Margaret Rutherford, no issue
• Prince Paul (1893–1964) married Solange de La Rochefoucald, had issue
• Prince Jérôme (1898–1992), married (1) Nicole de L’Espée, had issue; (2) Marthe Hafner, had issue

In 1915, Louis volunteered with the 5th Cuirassier Regiment of the French Army. On August 17, 1916, the regiment was sent to the front, specifically to the village of Lihons, France on the plateau of Santerre, to the east of the River Somme where the Battle of the Somme, one of the deadliest battles in history, was being fought. Louis was killed in action by the explosion of a rifle grenade on August 21, 1916, north of Lihons, at the age of 19.

The Murat family decided to bury Louis where he had died. His tomb is located outside the village of Lihons, in a wooded park that the Murat family gave to the village in 1961. Unfortunately in June of 2007, Louis’ tomb was vandalized and the medallion under the eagle was stolen. To avoid further damage, the village of Lihons decided to keep the eagle in the city hall and then replaced the eagle and the medallion with plaster copies.

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Timeline: August 1, 1916 – August 31, 1916

• July 1 – November 18 – Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France
• July 23 – August 7 – Battle of Pozières in France (Initial phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 24 – August 8 – Battle of Kowel in Galicia (now in Poland and Ukraine)
• August 3–5 – Battle of Romani in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt
• August 6 – Battle of Doberdo in Gorizia-Doberdò del Lago, Italy
• August 9–18 – First Battle of Doiran near Lake Dojran, present-day Republic of Macedonia
• August 24 – Battle of Mlali in East Africa
• August 27 – Romania enters the war on the Entente’s side. The Romanian army is defeated in a few weeks. See Romania during World War I.
• August 27 – December – Conquest of Romania by Central Powers
• August 27 – November 26 – Battle of Transylvania in Romania, a phase of the conquest of Romania
• August 28 – Italy declares war on Germany
• August 29 – Paul von Hindenburg replaces Erich von Falkenhayn as German Chief of Staff

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peerage were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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August 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website. If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Giuseppe Maria Giustiniani-Bandini

• son of Charles Giustiniani-Bandini Giustiniani-Bandini, 9th Earl of Newburgh and Donna Maria Lanza di Trabia
• born September 3, 1896
• unmarried
• killed in action August 11, 1916 at Monfalcone, Italy while fighting with the Italian Army, age 19
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p54106.htm#i541055

Lieutenant The Honorable Brian Danvers Butler

• son of Captain John Vansittart Danvers Butler, 6th Earl of Lanesborough and Anne Elizabeth Clark
• born April 18, 1876 in Swithland, Leicestershire, England
• unmarried
• killed in action Aug 18, 1916 at the Battle of the Somme while fighting with the British Army, age 40
• Leicestershire County Council War Memorials Project: Lieutenant Brian Danvers Butler
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p65904.htm#i659040

Emanuel, Erbprinz zu Salm-Salm (Hereditary Prince of Salm-Salm (see article above)

• eldest son and heir of Alfred, 7th Fürst zu Salm-Salm and Rosa, Gräfin von Lützow
• born November 30, 1871 at Münster, Westphalen, Germany
• married May 10, 1902 Maria Christina, Archduchess of Austria, had five children
• killed in action August 19, 1915 in Pinsk, Russia (now in Belarus) fighting with the Imperial German Army, age 44

Prince Louis Marie Michel Joachim Napoléon Murat (see article above)

• son of Joachim Napoléon Murat, 5th Prince Murat and Marie Cécile Ney d’Elchingen
• born September 8, 1896 at Rocquencourt, Yvelines, France
• killed in action on August 21, 1916 at the Battle of the Somme while fighting with the French Army, age 19
• great-great nephew of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, great great grandson of Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte and her husband Joachim-Napoléon Murat, Marshal of France, Admiral of France, and King of the Two Sicilies

by Susan Flantzer

Battle of the Somme
Timeline: July 1, 1916 – July 31, 1916
A Note About German Titles
July 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The Battle of the Somme

“Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word.” These were the words of Friedrich Steinbrecher, a 24 year old German officer and theology student who fought in the Battle of the Somme and survived, but was killed in action in 1917 in Champagne, France.

The Battle of the Somme was a 141 day battle, more accurately called the Somme Offensive, that lasted from July 1, 1916 until November 18, 1916. Fought in northern France near the Somme River, the battle pitted the British and French forces against the German forces. The first day of the battle holds the record for the bloodiest day ever in British military history. The battle started at 7:30 AM, and by 8:30 AM, 12,000 British soldiers had been killed. By the end of the day, there were 57,420 British casualties: 19,240 dead and 38,180 injured. More than half of the British officers involved lost their lives that day. Many British soldiers were killed or wounded the moment they stepped out of the front lines into No Man’s Land, the area of land between the enemy trenches.  As they walked slowly towards the German lines, burdened with supplies and expecting little or no opposition, they were easy targets for the German machine guns. The British lost nearly as many men in the first hours of the four month long battle than were killed in any of Britain’s wars of the previous 100 years.

Trench warfare was used during World War I and it was common practice to rotate troops. For example, a typical British soldier’s year could be divided as follows: 15% front line, 10% support line, 30% reserve line, 20% rest, and 25% other (hospital, travelling, leave, training courses, etc.). Trench warfare was intense and that meant that about 10% of the fighting soldiers were killed. This compared to 5% killed during the Second Boer War and 4.5% killed during World War II. Antibiotics had not yet been discovered and that meant what would be a minor injury today could result in death. World War I was the first war in which disease caused fewer deaths than combat, but sanitary conditions in the trenches were poor. Many soldiers suffered from dysentery, typhus, cholera, parasites and fungal conditions. Exposure was also a problem since the temperature in a trench in the winter could easily fall below freezing. The burial of the dead was frequently a luxury that neither side could easily afford. The bodies would lie in No Man’s Land until the front line moved and by that time the bodies were often unable to be identified.

By November 18, 1916, when the battle ended, British and French forces had penetrated only 6 miles (9.7 km) into German occupied territory and more than 1,300,000 soldiers from all countries involved were dead or wounded, making the Battle of the Somme one of the bloodiest battles in history. The British and the French won a Pyrrhic victory, a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is equivalent to a defeat. The phrase Pyrrhic victory is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War.

Many members of the British Royal Family attended Centenary Commemorations of the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest day in British military history.

• June 29 – July 1, 2016: The Princess Royal attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations in Canada
• June 30, 2016: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations at an Evening Vigil at Westminster Abbey
• June 30 – July 1, 2016: The Duke of Cambridge, The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry of Wales attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations in France
• July 1, 2016: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations in France
• July 1, 2016: The Duke of York attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations at the National Commemorative Service in Manchester, United Kingdom
• July 1, 2016: The Duke of Gloucester and The Duchess of Gloucester attended Battle of the Somme Centenary Commemorations in France

To learn more about the Battle of the Somme, see:

• First World War: The Battle of the Somme, 1916
• The Great War: The Battle of the Somme, 1916
• BBC: The Battle of the Somme: 141 Days of Horror
• Eyewitness to History: A Death at the Battle of the Somme, 1916

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Timeline: July 1, 1916 – July 31, 1916

• July – Battle of Taif inTa’if in Hejaz Vilayet (now in Saudi Arabia)
• July 1 – Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France begins and continues until November 18, 1916
• July 1 – 2 – British capture Fricourt in Picardy, France during the Second Battle of Albert
• July 1 – 13 – Second Battle of Albert in Somme, Picardy, France (Opening phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 2 – 25 – Battle of Erzincan in Erzincan, Erzurum Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now in Turkey)
  July 3 – 7 – British and French capture La Boisselle in Picardy, France during the Second
• Battle of Albert
• July 3 – 12 – British and French capture Mametz Wood in Picardy, France during the Second Battle of Albert
• July 3–17 – British capture Ovillers in Picardy, France during the Second Battle of Albert and Battle of Bazentin Ridge
• July 4 – 6 – Battle of Kostiuchnowka in Kostiuchnowka, Poland (now Kostyukhnivka , Ukraine)
• July 7 – 11 – British and French capture Contalmaison in Picardy, France during the Second Battle of Albert
• July 8 -14 – British capture Trônes Wood in France during the Second Battle of Albert
• July 14 – 17 – Battle of Bazentin Ridge in Picardy, France (Initial phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 14 – September 15 – Battles for Longueval and Delville Wood in Picardy, France (Initial phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 19 – 20 – Battle of Fromelles in Nord, France (Initial phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 23 – August 7 – Battle of Pozières in France (Initial phase of the Battle of the Somme)
• July 24 – August 8 – Battle of Kowel in Galicia (now in Poland and Ukraine)

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army. German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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July 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Jost Christian, 2nd Fürst zu Stolberg-Rossla

• son of Botho August Carl, 1st Fürst zu Stolberg-Rossla and Hedwig, Princess zu Ysenburg und Büdingen
• born December 28, 1886 in Germany
• killed in action July 1, 1916, age 29
• http://thepeerage.com/p9582.htm#i95814

The Honorable Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Charles Walter Palk

• son of Lawrence Hesketh Palk, 2nd Baron Haldon and The Honorable Constance Mary Barrington
• born September 28, 1870
• killed in action of July 1, 1916 in the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel, France, age 45
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p8427.htm#i84266

 

The Honorable Captain George Guy Hermon-Hodge

• son of Robert Trotter Hermon-Hodge, 1st Baron Wyfold and Frances Caroline Hermon
• born August 22, 1883
• unmarried
• died on July 7, 1916 from wounds received in action in the Battle of the Somme at Gézaincourt, near Doullens, France, age 32
• Winchester College: George Guy Hermon-Hodge
• http://thepeerage.com/p23980.htm#i239792

 

Captain The Honorable Roland Erasmus Philipps

• son of John Wynford Philipps, 1st Viscount St. Davids and Nora Gerstenberg
• born February 27, 1890
• killed in action on July 7, 1916 in the Battle of the Somme at Ovillers, France, age 26
• Elder brother and only sibling Captain The Honorable Colwyn Erasmus Arnold Philipps killed in action May 13, 1915
• Winchester College: Roland Erasmus Philipps
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3302.htm#i33020

Freiherr Franz von Doblhoff

• son of Freiherr Heinrich von Doblhoff-Dier and Gräfin Karoline Johanna Anna von Meran
• born 1897 in Leoben, Austria
• killed in action on July 16, 1916 at Treviso, Italy, age 19
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p4022.htm#i40220

William Charles Wynn, 4th Baron Newborough

• son of The Honorable Thomas John Wynn and Sybil Anna Catherine Corbett
• born November 4, 1873
• married 1900 Grace Bruce Carr
• died July 19, 1916 in London, England from illness caught in the trenches at the Western Front, age 42
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p12913.htm#i129130

by Susan Flantzer

• Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
• Timeline: June 1, 1916 – June 30, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• June 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, who attained the highest rank in the British Army, was a Knight of the Garter and Secretary of State for War, drowned on June 5, 1916 when the HMS Hampshire, which was taking him on a diplomatic mission to Russia, struck a German mine west of the Orkney Islands in Scotland.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, known as Herbert, was born on June 24, 1850 in Ballylongford near Listowel, County Kerry in Ireland, which was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time. He was the second son and the third child of the five children of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener and his first wife Frances Anne Chevallier.

Lord Kitchener’s siblings:

• Colonel Henry Elliott Chevallier Kitchener, 2nd Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (1846 – 1937),  married Eleanor Fanny Lushington, had issue
• Frances Emily Jane Kitchener (1848 – 1925), married Harry Rainy Parker
• Arthur Buck Kitchener (1852 – 1907), married Edith Paterson, no issue
• Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Walter Kitchener (1858 – 1912), married Caroline Fenton, had issue

Kitchener’s half sister by his father’s second marriage to Mary Emma Green:

• Henrietta Letita Emma Kawara Kitchener (1867 – 1926)

The family moved to Switzerland in 1863, hoping the Swiss mountain air would cure Kitchener’s mother of tuberculosis, but she died in 1864. Kitchener’s father decided to stay in Switzerland where his expenses would be cheaper. From 1863 to 1868, Kitchener attended a boarding school at Château Grand Clos in Villeneuve, Switzerland on Lake Geneva and then was educated at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. On January 4, 1871, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers where he worked as a surveyor. From 1874-1878, Kitchener worked on, and later led, an expedition on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund surveying Palestine. During this time, he became acquainted with the Arabic language and the mindset of the people in the Middle East. The data collected from Kitchener and others in the expedition, from the topography of the land to the local flora and fauna, were published in the eight-volume work The Survey of Western Palestine. In 1878, Kitchener was sent to Cyprus to help survey the new British protectorate and the following year, he became the vice-consul in Anatolia (Turkey).

In 1883, Kitchener was promoted to Captain and took part in the re-organizing of the Egyptian Army. Egypt at that time was a puppet state of the British. By 1885, he was a Lieutenant Colonel and the next year he became Governor of the Egyptian Provinces of Eastern Sudan and Red Sea Littoral. Kitchener served as Sirdar of the Egyptian Army from 1892–1899 and won many victories that brought him much fame back in Britain. In 1898, he was created Baron Kitchener of Khartoum and became Governor-General of the Sudan in 1899.

Kitchener participated in the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902) and was promoted to General and created Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum in 1902. Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief in India in 1902 and immediately began the task of reorganizing the Indian Army which was known as the Kitchener Reforms.  Kitchener was promoted to the highest Army rank, Field Marshal, on September 10, 1909. He wanted to be Viceroy of India, but was turned down due to political issues in Parliament. In June 1911, Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General.  In 1914, he was created 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum.

At the start of World War I in 1914, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith appointed Kitchener Secretary of State for War. Kitchener developed a massive army recruiting campaign and even appeared on a famous recruiting poster.

Kitchener did an effective job overseeing the British war strategy for the first 18 months of the war, but eventually his relations with the rest of the war cabinet became strained.  Kitchener was difficult to work with and he found it difficult to develop close working relationships with colleagues. In 1915, Kitchener was attacked by British newspapers over a shortage of shells, and the responsibility for munitions was taken away from him. Later in the same year, he lost his control of war strategy. Kitchener offered to resign from the cabinet, but his overwhelming popularity among the British people made the government fearful of the consequences of allowing him to leave the cabinet. Kitchener’s involvement with the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign led to a further tarnishing of his reputation with the cabinet.

On June 4, 1916, Lord Kitchener left London for secret talks with talks with Britain’s Russian allies in Archangel, Russia. The next day, he boarded the HMS Hampshire, a British Royal Navy armored cruisers, anchored off Thurso, Scotland, the northernmost town on the British mainland. Because the ship was carrying the British Secretary of State for War and his staff, it was ordered not to take the obvious route to northern Russia. Instead, the HMS Hampshire was instructed to sail was into the Pentland Firth, then to turn north, hugging the western coast of the Orkneys and only to head for Russia once it had passed to the north of the islands.

Two destroyers were to accompany the HMS Hampshire, but a storm with gale-force winds prevented the destroyers from keeping up with the HMS Hampshire and they were ordered back to port. About an hour later, there was an explosion. The HMS Hampshire struck a mine that had been laid by a German mine-laying submarine. Fifteen minutes later, the HMS Hampshire sank. 643 sailors along with Kitchener and his entire staff were killed. Only 12 sailors in two lifeboats reached the shore alive. Two of the survivors later testified in an inquiry that “Kitchener was last seen standing in his uniform on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, calmly talking to two staff officers as the ship went down.” There have been several conspiracy theories regarding  the sinking of the HMS Hamsphire and the death of Lord Kitchener.

The HMS Hampshire wreck site is designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act.  As a member of the British armed forces who was lost at sea in World War I and has no known grave, Kitchener is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton, Hampshire. The All Souls’ Chapel in the north tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was dedicated in 1925 to the memory of Lord Kitchener.

The Kitchener Memorial on Mainland, Orkney, is on the cliff edge at Marwick Head, near the spot where Kitchener died at sea. The tower bears the inscription: “This tower was raised by the people of Orkney in memory of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum on that corner of his country which he had served so faithfully nearest to the place where he died on duty. He and his staff perished along with the officers and nearly all the men of HMS Hampshire on 5 June 1916.”  On June 5, 2016, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Hampshire, The Princess Royal will rededicate the Kitchener Memorial and unveil the wall of names. In addition, The Princess Royal will visit the graves of the HMS Hampshire crew at The Royal Naval Cemetery, Lyness, Orkney.

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Timeline: June 1, 1916 – June 30, 1916

• May 31 – June 1 – Battle of Jutland between Britain’s Grand Fleet and Germany’s Hochseeflotte
• June 2 – 14 – Battle of Mont Sorrel near Ypres, Belgium
• June 4 – Brusilov Offensive begins in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (now in Poland and Ukraine)
• June 5 – Arab Revolt in Hejaz (now in Saudi Arabia) begins
• June 5 – The HMS Hampshire is sunk off the Orkney Islands; Lord Kitchener dies
• June 10 – Siege of Medina (now in Saudi Arabia) begins
• June 10 – July 4 – Battle of Mecca (now in Saudi Arabi), Arabs capture the city
• June 30 – Battle of the Boar’s Head in Artois, France, diversion from the Battle of the Somme which began the next day

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

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May 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum

• son of Lt. Col. Henry Horatio Kitchener and Frances Anne Chevallier
• born on June 24, 1850 in Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland
• unmarried
• died on June 5, 1916 when the HMS Hampshire, which was taking him on a diplomatic
• mission to Russia, struck a German mine west of the Orkney Islands

Freiherr Ernst von Cetto

• son of Freiherr Maximilian von Cetto and Gräfin Mechtildis zu Leiningen
• born 1897 at Oberlauterbach, Germany (now in France)
• unmarried
• killed in action on June 8, 1916 at Douaumont, France, age 19
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p9044.htm#i90439

Karl , Prinz von Lobkowicz

• son of Ferdinand Zdenko Maria, 10th Fürst von Lobkowicz and Anna Berta, Gräfin von Neipperg
• born February 13, 1893 in Bílina, (now in the Czech Republic)
• unmarried
• killed in action on June 15, 1916 at Rudnia, Poland
• http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00092565&tree=LEO
• Wikipedia: House of Lobkowicz

by Susan Flantzer

• Rear Admiral The Honorable Sir Horace Hood
• Timeline: May 1, 1916 – May 31, 1916
• A Note About German Titles
• May 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

Rear Admiral The Honorable Sir Horace Hood

For two days, May 31 – June 1, 1916, the Battle of Jutland was fought in the North Sea near Denmark’s Jutland peninsula between the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. A total of 250 ships were engaged in the battle, with fourteen British and eleven German ships sunk. 9,823 men were killed in the battle, 6,784 British and 3,039 German. One of those causalities was Rear Admiral The Honorable Sir Horace Hood who died when the HMS Invincible sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all but six men.

The Honorable Horace Lambert Alexander Hood was born in London, England on October 2, 1870, the fourth of the eight children of Francis Wheler Hood, 4th Viscount Hood of Whitley and Edith Lydia Drummond Ward.  The peerage Viscount Hood was created for Horace’s great-great-grandfather Admiral Samuel Hood, who was known for his service in the Royal Navy during American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars, and for acting as a mentor to the naval hero Horatio Nelson.

Horace’s seven siblings:

• The Honorable Mabel Hood (1866 – 1904), married Francis Baring, 5th Baron Ashburton, had issue
• The Honorable Grosvenor Arthur Frederick Hood (1867 – 1868), died young
• Grosvenor Arthur Alexander Hood, 5th Viscount Hood of Whitley (1868 – 1933), married (1) Jane Stapleton-Cotton, no issue; (2) his first cousin Marguerite Hood, no issue
• Lieutenant Colonel The Honorable Neville Hood (1872 – 1948), married Eveline Broad, had issue
• The Honorable Alma Hood (1875 – 1877), died young
• The Honorable Dorothy Hood (1877 – 1965), unmarried
• Colonel The Honorable Francis Hood (1880 – 1949), married Helen Prior, had issue

Horace’s career in the Royal Navy began when he was only 12 years old as he started his cadet training on the HMS Britannia at Dartmouth, England. Three years later, he graduated at the top of his class and joined the HMS Temeraire as a midshipman. In 1890, Horace set a record score for his examinations for his promotion to lieutenant. He scored 4398 points out of a possible 4600 points. Horace saw service on the Nile in 1897-1898 and in Somaliland in 1903-1904.

Beginning in 1906, Horace spent time in Washington, DC as the naval attaché to the British Embassy. In 1910, he became Captain of the Royal Naval College at Osborne and two years later was made a naval aide-de-camp to King George V. Horace was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1913 and in June 1914 he became naval secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. After the onset of World War I, Horace took command of a small naval force assisting the British and Belgian armies in trying to prevent the German navy from advancing towards ports on the British Channel. In May 1915, he took command of the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet aboard his flagship the HMS Invincible.

During his time in Washington, DC, Horace met an American widow with a young daughter,   Ellen Touzalin Nickerson. On January 19, 1910, Horace and Ellen were married, and the couple had two sons. Upon the death of their father in 1907, Horace’s brother Grosvenor had succeeded their father as the 5th Viscount Hood. Grosvenor’s two marriages were childless,  and Horace was the heir presumptive to the peerage until his death in 1916. After Horace’s death, his elder son Samuel was the heir presumptive to the peerage and succeeded his uncle as the 6th Viscount Hood in 1933. Samuel never married, so upon his death his brother Alexander became the 7th Viscount Hood. The current Viscount Hood, Henry Lyttelton Alexander Hood, 8th Viscount Hood of Whitley, is Horace’s grandson.

Children of Horace and Ellen:

• Samuel Hood, 6th Viscount Hood of Whitley (1910 – 1981), unmarried
• Alexander Lambert Hood, 7th Viscount Hood of Whitley (1914 – 1999), married Diana Maud Lyttelton, had issue including Henry Lyttelton Alexander Hood, 8th Viscount Hood of Whitley

Horace was knighted posthumously and Ellen was granted the style of a knight’s wife, Lady Hood, for the remainder of her life. She never remarried and died in 1950. Her daughter Katherine Nickerson from her first marriage married Walter Ernest Christopher James, 4th Baron Northbourne of Betteshanger .

The Battle of Jutland was the largest naval battle during World War I. The British objective was to destroy the German High Seas Fleet or at the least, to keep the German force contained and away from British shipping lanes. Because the German Imperial Navy was insufficient to engage the entire British fleet, the German objective was to lure, trap and destroy a portion of the British Grand Fleet.

Rear Admiral Horace Hood was aboard the battlecruiser HMS Invincible, the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world, leading the three ships of the Third Battle Cruiser Squadron. During the battle, the HMS Invincible was hit in her “Q” turret by a round of fire from the German battlecruiser SMS Lützow, causing a massive explosion. The ship broke in two and sank in 90 seconds with the loss of all but six of the crew of 1,026, including Rear Admiral Horace Hood.

The remains of the HMS Invincible and its crew are at the bottom of the North Sea, and the site is a protected war grave. Horace Hood’s name along with the names of members of the Royal Navy who died in World War I with no known grave are inscribed on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.  In 1918, Horace’s widow launched the battlecruiser HMS Hood, named after Horace’s great-great-grandfather Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood. During World War II, the HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck.  Of the 1415 aboard, only three survived.

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Timeline: May 1, 1916 – May 31, 1916

May 7 – 10 – Battle of Kondoa Irangi in Kondoa Irangi, German East Africa (now in Tanzania)
May 10 – Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare
May 15 – June 10 – Battle of Asiago at the Asiago plateau in Veneto, Italy
May 16 – Signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France defining their proposed spheres in the Middle East
May 31 – June 1 – Battle of Jutland between Britain’s Grand Fleet and Germany’s Hochseeflotte

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A Note About German Titles

Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire.  The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army.  German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.

24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.

*********************************************************

May 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action

The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Freiherr Karl von Moreau

• son of Freiherr Ferdinand von Moreau and Freiin Elisabeth von Eichthal
• born July 28, 1885 in Kleeburg, France
• married 1913 Freiin Eugenie von Loë, no issue
• killed in action on May 26, 1916 at Verdun, France, age 30
• brother-in-law of Freiherr Hubertus von Loë and Freiherr Klemens von Loë, who both were killed in action earlier in World War I
• http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00110691&tree=LEO

Midshipman The Honorable Bernard Michael Bailey

• son of Joseph Russell Bailey 2nd Baron Glanusk and Editha Elma Sergison
• born January 17, 1899
• unmarried
• killed in action on May 31, 1916, age 17, when the HMS Defence sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all men on board
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p42120.htm#i421193

Lieutenant Commander The Honorable Hugh Cecil Robert Feilding

• son of Rudolph Feilding, 9th Earl of Denbigh and The Honorable Cecilia Mary Clifford
• born December 30, 1887
• killed in action on May 31, 1916, age 29, when the HMS Defence sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all men on board
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p7608.htm#i76076

Rear Admiral The Honorable Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood

• son of Francis Wheler Hood, 4th Viscount Hood and Edith Ward
• born October 2, 1870 in London, England
• married 1910 Ellen Touzalin Nickerson, had two sons who both succeeded to the title Viscount Hood
• killed in action on May 31, 1916, age 45, when the HMS Invincible sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all but six men
• http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00273848&tree=LEO

Midshipman The Honorable Cecil Richard Molyneux

• son of Osbert Cecil Molyneux, 6th Earl of Sefton and Lady Helena Mary Bridgeman
• born December 2, 1899
• unmarried
• one of the 99 men killed in action on May 31, 1916 aboard the HMS Lion during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea, age 16
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p7249.htm#i72484

Commander Henry Ernest Digby Hugh Willoughby

• eldest son of Godfrey Ernest Willoughby, 10th Baron Middleton of Middleton and Ida Eleonora Constance Ross
• born July 1, 1882
• unmarried
• killed in action on May 31, 1916, age 33, when the HMS Indefatigable sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all but two men
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p4652.htm#i46520

Commander The Honorable Lionel Henry Shore

• son of Henry Noel Shore, 5th Baron Teignmouth and Mary Aglionby Porteus
• born November 18, 1882
• killed in action on May 31, 1916, age 33, when the HMS Invincible sunk during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea with the loss of all but six men