October 1914: Royalty and World War I

by Susan Flantzer

Deaths of High Profile Royals
Timeline: October 1, 1914 – October 31, 1914
A Note About German Titles
October 1914 – Royals Who Died In Action


Deaths of High Profile Royals

In October 1914, four high-profile royals were killed in action: a grandson of Queen Victoria; a son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia; a nephew of Wilhelm II, German Emperor; and an uncle of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Prince Maurice of Battenberg, the grandson of Queen Victoria, has a separate article, and the other three are profiled here.

Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Russia; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Russia was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 27, 1892. His father, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. The Grand Duke was a poet, playwright, and translator and arranged for his nine children to have lessons from experts in a variety of fields in addition to their traditional education. Prince Oleg wrote poetry like his father and was thought to be the most intelligent of the nine children. He attended the prestigious Alexander Lyceum instead of receiving a military education. Just before the outbreak of World War I, Prince Oleg was engaged to his cousin Princess Nadejda Petrovna of Russia.

Shortly after the start of World War I, five of the six sons of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich were sent to the front to serve with the Imperial Guards. On October 10, 1914, Prince Oleg was wounded in an attack against the Germans in East Prussia. Unfortunately, blood poisoning set in before it was realized that Prince Oleg was seriously wounded. He was transported to Vilna (now in Lithuania) for an unsuccessful emergency operation. Before he died, Prince Oleg was able to see his parents and receive the Order of St. George from his father. On his deathbed, Prince Oleg said, “I am so happy…It will encourage the troops to know that the Imperial House is not afraid to shed its blood.” He died on October 12, 1914, at the age of 21, and at his request was buried at his father’s estate Ostashevo on the banks of the Ruza River in the Moscow countryside.

Sadly, three of Prince Oleg’s brothers, Ioann, Gavriil, and Konstantin, were executed by the Bolsheviks on July 18, 1918, at the same time as Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia (the elder sister of Empress Alexandra Feodrovna) and two additional members of the Romanov family, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, and Prince Vladimir Paley. See Unofficial Royalty: July 18, 1918 – Murder of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia.

Maximilian of Hesse

Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel; Photo Credit – www.flickr.com

Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel was born on October 20, 1894, at Schloss Rupenheim in Offenbach, Hesse (Germany). His parents were Princess Margaret of Prussia and Friedrich Karl, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse. Through his mother, Prince Maximilian was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a nephew of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Prince Maximilian was serving with the Grand Ducal Hessen Dragoons when he was severely wounded by British machine-gun fire at Saint-Jean-Chappelle, near Bailleul, France on October 13, 1914. He was taken to a Trappist monastery where the monks cared for him, but the British advanced and took control of the monastery. Prince Maximilian told a British army doctor that he was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and asked him to send a locket to his mother which the doctor promised to do. The prince died three hours later at the age of 19 and the British army doctor died three days later. The locket was sent to the doctor’s widow who forwarded it to Queen Mary, the wife of King George V of the United Kingdom. Eventually, the locket did reach Prince Maximilian’s mother.

The mayor of the town where Prince Maximilian died ordered a local carpenter to construct a coffin for the prince and he was then buried in a local cemetery. However, local people who had suffered greatly in the fighting protested the burial when they found out the prince was the Kaiser’s nephew and the prince’s remains were moved to a secret location. In 1926, King George V assisted Prince Maximilian’s family in recovering his remains.

Prince Maximilian’s older brother Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was killed in action in 1916 and a younger brother, Prince Christoph, was killed in World War II.

Prince Wolrad Friedrich of Waldeck and Pyrmont ; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Prince Wolrad of Waldeck and Pyrmont was born on June 26, 1892, in Arolsen, Waldeck and Pyrmont (Germany). He was the only child of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and his second wife Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

Prince Wolrad was the half-brother of Queen Emma of the Netherlands, wife of King William III of the Netherlands; Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany who married Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany; and Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Therefore, the prince was the uncle of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, the reigning monarch during World War I; and the uncle of the two children of Prince Leopold: Charles Edward, the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha during World War I and Princess Alice of Albany.

Prince Wolrad was a lieutenant in Grand Ducal Hessen Dragoons. On the evening of October 17, 1914, he led a cavalry patrol near Moorslede, Belgium. The patrol came under fire from the advancing British troops. Several of the dragoons were hit and fell off their horses and Prince Wolrad’s horse was also hit. The prince and his aide reached a nearby trench, but then Prince Wolrad saw one of his men lying a short distance from the trench. The prince crawled to the wounded man and tried to pull him to safety, but was fatally hit with gunfire and died from his wounds at the age of 22.

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Timeline: October 1, 1914 – October 31, 1914

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A Note About German Titles

Most of the royals who died in action during World War I were German. 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 our 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 1914 – Royals 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 from The Peerage.  If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.

Karl, Freiherr von Vequel-Westernach

Hermann, Freiherr von Landsberg-Velen

Karl, Prinz zu Solms-Braunfels

Klemen, Freiherr von Loë

Prince Oleg Constantinovitch of Russia

Prince Maximilian of Hesse-Kassel

Paul Maria Joseph, Graf von Hompesch-Bollheim

Wolrad Friedrich, Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont

Heinrich XLVI, Prinz Reuss

Joseph Ferdinand, Prinz von Lobkowicz

  • son of Dr. Maria Ferdinand Georg August Melchior, Prinz von Lobkowicz and Ida Maria, Gräfin Podstatzky-Lichtenstein
  • born September 4, 1885 in Unterberkowic
  • 1913 married Gisela, Gräfin von Silva-Tarouca, had issue
  • killed in action at Jaroslau, Galicia (now in Poland) on October 25, 1914, age 29
  • http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00126814&tree=LEO
Maurice of Battenberg

Prince Maurice of Battenberg; Photo Credit – www.firstworldwar.com

Prince Maurice of Battenberg