Alastair, Duke of Connaught

Alastair with his mother

Alastair Arthur Windsor was the only child in the family of the British Prince Arthur Connautsky and Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife . His father and mother came from the British royal family. On his father, the boy was the grandson of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strantra , the third son of Queen Victoria , and Princess Louise Margarita of Prussia , and her mother was Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife and Royal Princess Louise of Great Britain , daughter of King Edward VII , who, in his Queue was the son of Queen Victoria. As the great-grandson of the British monarch, from birth Alastair bore the title "His Highness Prince Alastair of Connaught." His father's sister was the Swedish crown princess Margarita , who married the heir to the throne, Prince Gustav Adolf . At the time of his birth, the prince was ninth in the succession to the British throne ^[2] .

Alastair Arthur was born on August 9, 1914, at his parents' house on Mount 54, Mayfair , Westminster , London . Now in this building is the embassy of Brazil in the UK. The baptism of the prince took place in the parental home on August 25, 1914. King George V (cousin of his mother), King of Spain Alfonso XIII , Dowager Queen of Great Britain Alexandra (great-grandmother), Duke Arthur Connautsky (paternal grandfather), Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (cousin grandmother) and Princess Maria (cousin aunt) ) ^[3] .

In the year the prince was born, the First World War began. Continued public hostility towards Germany forced King George V to abandon all German titles, ranks and awards. He asked all the members of his huge family to do the same. The king renamed the name of the ruling dynasty from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor by the name of the ancestral castle. Also, George V limited the circle of descendants of the British monarchs, who were awarded the title of Prince / Princess and Royal Highness. In accordance with the new provision, the title could be worn by the children of the monarch, his male grandchildren and the grandson of the Prince of Wales ^[4] . Alastair, who was only the great-grandson of Queen Victoria, lost his title, but from his mother he had the modest title of Count MacDuff as heir to the title of Duke Fife ^[5] .

Earl MacDuff was educated at School and at the Royal Military School in Sandhurst . In January 1935, he received the rank of lieutenant. He served in the 2nd Dragoon Regiment, which was led by his father. On September 12, 1938, his father died of stomach cancer. The following year, Alastair was appointed adjutant in Ottawa by his relative, Earl Athlon , who later became Governor-General of Canada ^[6] .

In 1942, he inherited from his grandfather the titles of the Duke of Connaught and Straternsky, Count of Sussex, with the appeal “Your Grace” ^[2] . Alastair died unexpectedly the next year in Ottawa at the age of 28 for unknown reasons. The diaries of Sir Alan Lassels , personal secretary of King George VI, published in 2006, state that “Earl Athlone and the officers of the regiment in which Alastair served considered him an incompetent and incapable military man; he fell out of the window when he was drunk and died of hypothermia at night. " At the time of his death, Alaster held the twelfth place in the succession to the throne. He was not married and had no descendants ^{[6] [7]} .

His ashes are located at the in Scotland, which belonged to his grandfather Duke Fife ^{[2] [6]} . After the death of Alastair, his titles of the Duke of Connaught and Strantra returned to the crown. The title of his mother, the Duchess of Fife, was inherited after her death in 1959 by Alastair's cousin (1929-2015) ^[8] .

• Nicholson, Harold . King George the Fifth: His Life and Reign: [ eng. ] . - London: Constable and Co, 1952. - P. 310. - 570 p.
• Pine LG New Extinct Peerage, 1884-1971: Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms: [ eng. ] . - London: Heraldry Today, 1972. - P. 82. - 368 p. - ISBN 0900455233 .
• Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy: [ eng. ] . - London: Random House, 2008 .-- P. 312. - 400 p. - ISBN 9780099539735 .

• Alistair Arthur Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn . - Profile on Thepeerage.com.