Royals in Medals #8: Princess Alexandra and Sir Angus Ogilvy

Princess Alexandra, LG, DCVO

Princess Alexandra was born on Christmas Day 1936 at her family's London home. She was the second child and only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent (the younger brother of King George VI and King Edward VIII) and Princess Marina, the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece.  She has two brothers: the current Duke of Kent and Prince Michael of Kent.  At birth she was sixth in line to the throne.  She was christened Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel.

Prince George was killed in a wartime flying accident in 1942 when she was just five years old.  She was a bridesmaid at the 1947 wedding of her cousin Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.

On 24 April 1963, she married the Hon Angus Ogilvy in Westminster Abbey

The couple have two children:

• James Robert Bruce Ogilvy (born 29 February 1964)
• Marina Victoria Alexandra Ogilvy (born 31 July 1966)

Honorary Military Appointments

United Kingdom

• Patron Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service
• Patron and Air Chief Commandant of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service
• Royal Colonel 3rd Battalion The Rifles
• Royal Honorary Colonel of The Royal Yeomanry
• Honorary Air Commodore of RAF Cottesmore

Canada

• Colonel-in-Chief The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (1960–2010)/li>
• Colonel-in-Chief The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's)
• Deputy Colonel-in-Chief The Queen's Royal Lancers

Hong Kong

• Commandant General, Royal Hong Kong Police Force

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Orders
 

Order of the Garter
Royal Lady (LG), 2003






Royal Victorian Order
Dame Grand Cross (DCVO) 25 December 1960





Royal Family Order of King George VI











Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II










 
Commemorative Medals

King George VI Coronation Medal, 1937
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953   
  Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
  Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2002
  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012


Long Service Awards

  Canadian Forces Decoration (CD)

Sir Angus Ogilvy

The Hon Angus James Bruce Ogilvy was born on 14 September 1928, the second son of the 12th Earl of Airlie and Lady Alexandra Coke, a daughter of the 3rd Earl of Leicester.  He came from a family of courtiers.  His grandmother, Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie, was a close friend and Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Mary. His father was a Lord-in-Waiting to King George V and Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother).  Ogilvy declined the offer of a earldom on marrying Princess Alexandra.

He was educated at Eton, did his National Service as an officer in the Scots Guards, and went up to Trinity College, Oxford.  Ogilvy was a businessman, working for Tiny Rowland's company, Lonrho, which attracted much controversy in circumventing trade sanctions against Rhodesia.  Ogilvy was subject of some criticism in a Department of Trade report into the company in 1976, which effectively ended his business career.  Following that, he busied himself in charitable work and supporting his wife's royal duties.

Sir Angus died on 26 December 2004.  His funeral was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and he was interred at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Orders


Royal Victorian Order
Knight Commander (KCVO) 31 December 1988




 
Commemorative Medals


  Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
  Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2002
 

Royals in Medals #7: The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

HRH Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester, KG, GCVO

Prince Richard was born on 26 August 1944 at Northampton, the second son of Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (third daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch).  He was thus a grandson of George V and a first cousin to The Queen at birth he was fifth in line to the throne.  He was christened Richard Alexander Walter George. When he was four months old he was taken by his parents to Australia, where for two years (1945-1947) his father was Governor-General.

He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College,Cambridge, and qualified as an architect.  He had intended to earn his living in private practice, but he became heir to his father's titles following the death of his elder brother, Prince William of Gloucester, in a flying accident on 28 August 1972.  He succeeded his father in June 1974.

He carries out many royal duties and has acted as a Councillor of State.

Honorary Military Appointments

Australia

• Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Australian Army Education Corps

New Zealand

• Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps

United Kingdom

• Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Anglian Regiment
• Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Army Medical Corps
• Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Logistic Corps
• Royal Colonel, of the 6th (V) Battalion, The Rifles
• The Royal Honorary Colonel, of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia)
• Honorary Air Commodore, of RAF Odiham
• Honorary Air Commodore, of 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 16 June 2001.

The Duke holds the honorary rank of Air Marshal, Royal Air Force.

On a visit to Iraq, October 2008

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Orders

Order of the Garter
Royal Knight (KG), 1996






Royal Victorian Order
Knight Grand Cross (GCVO), 1974




Most Venerable Order of St John
Grand Prior, 1975

Grand Prior of the Order of St John

Commonweath Orders


Order of the Star of the Soloman Islands
Member (SSI), 2008

Commemorative Medals

  Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953  
  Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
  Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2002

  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012
  Nepalese Coronation Medal, 1975
  Soloman Islands Independence Medal, 1978
  Vanuatu Independence Medal, 1980

Long Service Awards

Service Medal of the Order of St John, with three bars



Foreign Honours

• Mexico.  Order of the Aztec Eagle
• Norway. Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - Grand Cross, 1973
• Sweden.  Order of the Polar Star - Commander Grand Cross, 1975
• Tonga. Order of the Crown of Tonga, 2008
• Nepal.  Order of  Tris Shakti Patta 

The Duchess of Gloucester

 

Birgette, Duchess of Gloucester, GCVO

The Duchess of Gloucester, formerly Birgitte Eva van Deurs Henriksen, was born on 20 June 1946 in Odense, Denmark.

She married Prince Richard, whom she had met at Cambridge, on 8 July 1972.  Together the couple have three children:

• Alexander, Earl of Ulster (born 24 October 1974)
• Lady Davina Lewis (born 19 November 1977)
• Lady Rose Gilman (born 1 March 1980)

Honorary Military Appointments

Australia

• Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Army Educational Corps 

Bermuda

• Colonel-in-Chief, of the Bermuda Regiment

Canada

• Colonel-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces Dental Services

New Zealand 

• Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Educational Corps 

United Kingdom

• Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Rangers (until 1992) 
• Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Army Dental Corps
• Deputy Colonel-in-Chief of the Adjutant General's Corps
• Royal Colonel of the 7th (V) Battalion The Rifles
• Sponsor of  HMS Gloucester and HMS Sandown.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Orders


Royal Victorian Order
Dame Grand Cross (DCVO), 23 June 1989






Most Venerable Order of St John
Dame of Justice (DStJ), 1974
Dame Grand Cross (GCStJ), 2009

Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
1973

Commemorative Medals

  Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
  Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2002
  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012
  Nepalese Coronation Medal, 1975

Long Service Awards

Service Medal of the Order of St John, with (?two) bars



Foreign Honours

• Tonga. Order of the Crown of Tonga - Dame Commander, 2008

Books and Stuff

A weekly round-up of my book news

What I've been reading...

I finished A.E. van Vogt, Voyage of the Space Beagle.

I started Walsh & Lowe, The English Whippet, and Anne Tyler's A Patchwork Planet - I've not read any of her work before, but thought the film of The Accidental Tourist wasn't too bad.

Carried on reading Stephen Jay Gould, The Lying Stones of Marrakech.

What I've bought....

W.F. Kirby (ed), Kalevala: The Land of Heroes - £1.50
Tim Tatton-Brown (ed), The Archaeology of Cathedrals - £1.50

100 Not Out!

This is the Blog's 100th Post!

A Video for Movemeber

Courtesy of Mr Pickle and the Junkshop Quartet.  For more on Movember, see here.

Sir William Parker

Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, GCB, Bart

Sir William Parker was born on 1 December 1781 in Almington, Staffs, the son of Thomas Parker.  He was a nephew of Sir John Jervis, Earl St Vincent. 

He entered the Royal Navy on 5 March 1793 as Captain's Servant to Capt John Thomas Duckworth, HMS Orion, on which he served in the West Indies and was present at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. He followed Duckworth into HMS Leviathan and was appointed Acting Lieutenant in June 1798, shortly afterwards joining HMS Queen, the flagship of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker.  While on the West Indies Station, he was given temporary command of the sloops Volage, Amaranthe and Pelican.  While in command of HMS Stone (in which he served in the West Indies, the North Sea and the Channel), he captured the French Packet La Legere with a valuable cargo, and, in company with HMS La Constance, the Spanish privateer El Cantara. He was made Post Captain on 9 October 1801.

HMS Amazon in action, by Nicholas Pocok

He took command of HMS Amazon in November 1802, staying with her until February 1812.  He served in the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson, who he soon impressed as a fine frigate captain.  At one point Nelson suspected that Sir John Orde, commanding ships around the Spanish coast, was intercepting his despatches and commandeering Nelson's frigates to use himself.  Nelson therefore ordered Parker not to stop for any of Orde's ships - Parker attempted this but was intercepted by HMS Eurydice.  He was however able to convince the Eurydice's commander to turn a blind eye and having delivered his despatches to Lisbon, acted on Nelson's hint that he was not expected back until February by carrying out a cruise that netted him several prizes worth a total of £20,000.  Orde complained about the 'poaching' taking place on his station, but the prize money went to Parker and Nelson.  Nelson remarked of him 'I admire his spirit and resolution to attack… under all the disadvantages of situation; such conduct will some happy day meet its reward.’

Parker and Amazon took part in the pursuit of Villeneuve, but missed out on Trafalgar.  After Nelson's death, Parker continued to distinguish himself.  Amazon was back in the Atlantic in 1806, this time as part of Sir John Borlase Warren’s pursuit of Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez. When Warren's fleet unexpectedly encountered a separate French fleet under Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, Amazon became involved in the resulting Action of 13 March 1806.  During the battle she hunted down and captured the 40-gun frigate Belle Poule in a running engagement. The Amazon lost four killed and five wounded during the engagement, while the Belle Poule lost six killed and 24 wounded.

After leaving the Amazon, Parker was ashore until 1827, when he took command of HMS Warspite, serving as senior naval officer in the Aegean.  He was given command of the Royal Yacht, Prince Regent in 1829 and promoted rear-admiral in 1830.  In April 1831 was appointed second in command of the Channel Squadron, under Sir Edward Codrington. In September 1831 he was detached on an independent command at Lisbon, aboard Asia where he went to protect British interests during the Portuguese Civil War. When he returned to England he was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty.

First Opium War

He left the Admiralty in 1841, and was appointed commander-in-chief of the East Indies and China Station. Parker sailed for Hong Kong and assumed command of the squadron on 10 August 1841, raising his flag in the Cornwallis.  In this role, Parker commanded naval forces during the First Opium War, supervising operations from the capture of Amoy to the pacification of Nanking.  He was advanced to GCB and created a Baronet in recognition of his services.

In 1845 was Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. In May 1846, because of his knowledge of Portugal and its politics, he was given the additional command of the Channel Squadron while still remaining in charge of the Mediterranean. He was briefly (for a week) First Naval Lord in July 1846 but gave up the role due to ill health. He served as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth from 1854 to 1857.

In 1863 he became an Admiral of the Fleet. He died on 13 November 1866 from complications from bronchitis, renowned as the last of Nelson's captains. He was buried in his parish churchyard near his home at Shenstone Lodge, and a monument to his memory was erected in Lichfield Cathedral.

Parker's medals and other items relating to him were sold by Morton and Eden on 29 November 2012.  They were

• Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross (GCB).  Parker had been appointed CB in 1815, KCB 1834 and GCB 1842.
• Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps - 1 June 1794, Amazon 13 March 1806
• China War Medal 1842

 In addition, Parker was a knight of the Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit (1815).

The Word from the Trenches Is...

The Daily Telegraph has an interesting article about the many words that entered common currency during and after the First World War

the war brought military slang into the mainstream, imported French and even German words to English and saw words from local dialects become part of national conversation.

William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury

William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury

 

Archbishop Frederick Temple

William Temple was born on 15 October 1881 at The Palace, Exeter, residence of his father Frederick Temple (1821-1902), then Bishop of Exeter (and himself later Archbishop of Canterbury).  He was educated at Rugby (where his father had been headmaster) and Balliol College, Oxford.  At Oxford he was President of the Union and showed an interest in social issues by working at the university settlements in Bethnal Green and Bermondsey.

On graduating, he took a post as Fellow of Queen's College where he became involved in the Workers' Education Association (founded by the great Christian Socialist FD Maurice), being it's president from 1908 to 1924, and the Student Christian Movement.  He was ordained in 1909 by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (after the Bishop of Oxford demurred because of Temple's views on the Virgin Birth).  He was headmaster of Repton School from 1910 to 1914.  In 1915 he was appointed an honorary chaplain to the King and in 1916 he married Frances Gertrude Acland.  He was a secretary of the mid-war National Mission of Repentance and Hope and a leader of the Life and Liberty Movement, an unofficial body designed to stimulate change in the governance of the Church of England.

He was appointed a Canon of Westminster in 1919, and in 1920, Lloyd-George nominated him Bishop of Manchester (which gave him a seat in the House of Lords in 1925).  Here he became involved in the ecumenical movement and attended the Faith and Order Conference at Lausanne in 1927 and was chair of the Conference in Edinburgh in 1937 - he was later to be instrumental in founding the British Council of Churches and eventually the World Council of Churches.  In 1929 he was enthroned as  Archbishop of York.

A member of the Labour Party from 1918 to 1925, he was one of the leading voices of social Christianity in England - he led the Oxford Conference on Church and State in 1937 and the Malvern Conference of 1941, in 1932 he was chosen to preach at the opening of the Geneva Conference on disarmament.  His most influential work was his 1942 book Christianity and the Social Order.

In 1942 he became the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury. Before his early death in 1944, Temple did much as one of the moral leaders of the country in wartime, though his did, of course, court controversy with those who prefer the church not to stray into the political arena.  He spoke in favour of reform of the banking system and was one of the movers behind the Education Act of 1944 and the establishment of the Welfare State.  He spoke out against antisemitism and was a founder of the Council of Christians and Jews.

He died at Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, on 26 October 1944.  He is regarded by his admirers as one of the greatest leaders of the Church of England.

This Week's Interesting Obits

Ivor Allsop
Leading authority in the Yorkshire longsword folk-dance tradition.
Guardian 22 Nov 2012

Reis Leming (d. 5 Nov 2012).
American airman awarded the George Medal for rescue work in the 1953 floods.
Daily Telegraph 18 Nov 2012

Books and Stuff

A weekly round-up of my book news.

What I've been reading...

Finished Darwin's Armada, which I enjoyed very much and  would recommend to anyone.  The voyage of the Beagle is well-trodden ground, but less well-known are the travels of Darwin's later allies Huxley, Hooker and Wallace.  A good read.

I had another go at Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes.  I'd been given it last Christmas by someone who knew I was interested in nesuke and I read half of  it some months ago before resting it.  I persevered with another fifty or so pages, but I've given up.  Despite all the praise it's got, I just find it turgid and the author's 'journey' into his family history dull.

Started Stephen Jay Gould, The Lying Stones of Marrakech, which is up to his usual standards.

It never rains, but it pours...

The planets have trundled along in their tracks and come along to one of those conjunctions that cause medal collectors to pull their hair out - yes, the winter auctions are with us.

For some reason the big four auction houses have their quarterly sales around the same time, which always causes a glut of choice.  This time it seems worse than usual.  We have the following sales coming up.

22 November Spink
29 November Morton and Eden (Sotheby's)
12/13 December DNW
13 December Bonhams

Each play to their own strengths - Morton and Eden have a large section of World Medals and Orders, which are always eye-catching a attract the big spenders (particularly in the last twenty years, the Imperial Russian orders, which are favoured by oligarchs).  DNW go for both quality and quantity - in a massive sale of 1715 lots they have a Boer War Victoria Cross, two George Crosses, George Medals and more other gallantry medals than you can shake a stick at.  They are also dispersing a large collection of lifesaving medals, which look interesting.

As I say, we're spoilt for choice.  Fortunately, I can't afford to buy anything so it isn't a problem for me.

A Sea Gallantry Medal group of three awarded to Quartermaster Robert Matthews, S.S. Cymric, awarded three life saving medals for saving life on the St. Cuthbert, 1908

Interuption to Normal Service

Apologies to anyone who's called in lately to see any of the 'regulars' - Sunday's Dead Bishop, Monday's Moustache or Wednesday's Royal in Medals.

I've not posted these because I've been unwell and have spent most of my time wrapped up in a duvet.  As I'm no longer able to have the pleasure of a hot whisky and lemon, I've had to do with the company of a good book and warm whippet...

This Week's Interesting Obits

Sir Rex Hunt (d.  11 Nov 2012).  Former Governor of the Falkland Islands.
Daily Telegraph 12 Nov 2012 
Guardian 12 Nov 2012
Independent 12 Nov 2012



Birger Stromsheimone (d. 10 Nov 2012).  Norwegian SOE operative, one of the Heroes of Telemark.
Daily Telegraph 15 Nov 2012

Books and Stuff

A weekly round-up of my book news.   Not a lot to report this week - I've not been well.

What I've been reading...

Finished Jim Butcher's Grave Peril .

Carrying on with Darwin's Armada and The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Royals In Medals: Prince Charles Update

I've only just posted on the Prince of Wales, and already, I'm having to update it!

Prince Charles was today (his 64th Birthday) awarded the New Zealand Armed Force Award for his service as Air Commodore in Chief of the RNZAF, a post he has held since 1977.