Battenberg, Moritz

Moritz Victor Donald was born on October 3, 1891 in the family of Prince Heinrich Battenberg and Beatrice, Princess of Great Britain . His father came from the German aristocratic family of Battenberg , the morganatic branch of the Hessian house, from the marriage of Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt and Countess Julia von Hauke , who received the title of Princess Battenberg . His mother was the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria of England and Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . Moritz is the last of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren and a member of the British royal family, as his parents lived in the UK at the Queen’s court.

From birth, Moritz bore the title of His Grace Prince Moritz Battenberg . The prince was the youngest and beloved child in the family. His father died of malaria when the boy was four years old, exactly the same was his mother when she lost her father in 1861. The prince was educated at a preparatory school in Hertfordshire .

His older sister Victoria Eugenia became in 1906 the Queen of Spain, the wife of King Alfonso XIII . The prince studied at Wellington College . With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he joined the ranks of the British Army. He served as a lieutenant . Moritz was killed in the battle of Ypres on October 27, 1914. He was buried in the city of Ypres in a military cemetery.

• His Grace Prince Moritz Battenberg