Profile
Prince Louis of Battenberg
European Royalty/naval Officer
Male
Born
May 24, 1854
Hometown
Austria-Hungary
Died
Sep 11, 1921
Death Place
Piccadilly
Other Names
Prince Louis of B...
Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG, PC, formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a German prince related to the British Royal Family. After a career in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy lasting more than… Read More
Romance
Check out the latest love interests for Prince Louis of Battenberg.
Family
Discover the family history of Prince Louis of Battenberg.
Prince Louis of Battenberg
d.1921
parents
siblings
children
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Prince Louis of Battenberg.
CHILDHOOD
1854
Birth
Born on May 24, 1854.
1858
4 Years Old
On 26 December 1858, he automatically became His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg when his mother was elevated to Princess of Battenberg with the style of Serene Highness by decree of her husband's brother, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse.
… Read More
TEENAGE
1868
14 Years Old
Among the visitors entertained at Heiligenberg were Prince Alexander's relations, the Russian Imperial family, and his cousin, Prince Louis of Hesse. Influenced by his cousin's wife, Princess Alice, a daughter of Queen Victoria, and by Prince Alfred, another of Queen Victoria's children, Battenberg joined the Royal Navy on 3 October 1868 at the age of fourteen and thus became a naturalised British subject.
… Read More
1870
16 Years Old
From June to September 1870 he took leave in Germany, coinciding with the Franco-Prussian war, but he spent the next three-and-a-half years in the Americas, where his tour of duty served to make up for the training he had missed while posted with the Prince of Wales on the Ariadne.
TWENTIES
1874
20 Years Old
Returning to Europe in early 1874, he was posted to the shore establishment HMS Excellent, and passed the Sub-Lieutenant's examinations—gaining the best marks ever recorded at seamanship and joint best-ever at gunnery.
1875
21 Years Old
In 1875, again at the invitation of the Prince of Wales, he joined HMS Serapis, which conducted the Prince on an official tour of India, 1875–76.
… Read More
1876
22 Years Old
The Prince asked Louis to stay with him at Marlborough House for the summer of 1876, but wishing to gain further experience at sea, Louis instead accepted an offer to join Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, as a lieutenant onboard HMS Sultan.
… Read More
1878
24 Years Old
In late February–early March 1878, Louis was still serving on the Sultan as it lay in the Bosphorus during the Russo-Turkish war.
… Read More
1879
25 Years Old
For the next two years Louis served on HMS Agincourt and on the Royal Yacht, HMY Osborne, but in October 1879 he refused further service on the Royal Yacht, saying it was damaging his professional career, and requested half-pay until he could be given an active duty.
On 17 February 1880 he, his father, and Tsar Alexander II witnessed an explosion at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, when Stephen Chalturin unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the Tsar with dynamite beneath the great dining room.
On 11 July 1882, Alexandria was bombarded and in the next two weeks Louis served in the Flying Squadron delivering shells and ammunition to the battle fleet, and then as a guard to the Khedive at Ras Al Teen Palace.
… Read More
THIRTIES
1884
30 Years Old
On 30 April 1884 in the presence of the Queen, Prince Louis married her granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine at Darmstadt.
… Read More
1885
31 Years Old
On his penultimate day aboard the Queen's yacht, 30 August 1885, Louis was promoted to the rank of commander.
… Read More
1889
35 Years Old
On 3 October 1889, Battenberg was appointed to his first independent command, HMS Scout, a torpedo-cruiser, which saw service in the Red Sea.
1891
37 Years Old
On 31 December 1891, Prince Louis was promoted to the rank of captain and became an aide-de-camp to the Queen, a post he would retain under both King Edward VII and King George V.
… Read More
FORTIES
By February 1894 his role was further developed when he was appointed joint secretary of the naval and military committee on defence, which was later renamed the Committee of Imperial Defence.
1899
45 Years Old
His careful study of both naval and military defence, as well as its interaction, led to his appointment as Assistant Director of the Naval Intelligence Division in June 1899.
… Read More
1902
48 Years Old
After a year as captain of HMS Implacable in the Mediterranean, during which he spectacularly defeated a larger opposing force during naval exercises, Louis was appointed as Director of Naval Intelligence in November 1902, an apt posting for a man whom First Lord of the Admiralty the Earl of Selborne described as "the cleverest sailor I have met yet".
FIFTIES
1904
50 Years Old
He was promoted to rear-admiral on 1 July 1904, in which year his family connections to the royal courts of Europe helped resolve the Dogger Bank incident peacefully.
… Read More
1907
53 Years Old
After less than six months in post his flag was transferred to the battleship Prince of Wales in August 1907.
… Read More
1909
55 Years Old
In 1909, he published a translation of Commander Vladimir Semenoff's Rasplata (The Reckoning), a memoir of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5, and witnessed the first crossing of the English Channel by air by Louis Blériot.
… Read More
1911
57 Years Old
In December 1911, Louis did return to the Admiralty but as Second rather than First Sea Lord. As Second Sea Lord, Louis pushed through improvements in working conditions for the ratings, and created an Admiralty War Staff that would prepare the navy's plans in case of war. However, almost a year to the day later, on 8 December 1912, Battenberg assumed the post of First Sea Lord in succession to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman.
… Read More
LATE ADULTHOOD
No Cabinet advised by Fisher would have made such a blundering, incompetent, disastrous response to the July 1914 Crisis.
… Read More
1920
66 Years Old
He sold Heiligenberg Castle, which he had inherited from his father, in 1920.
Milford Haven was appointed Military Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), to add to the Civil one he already held, in recognition of his service to the Royal Navy in the 1921 New Year Honours, and was specially promoted by Order in Council to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet on the Retired List, dated 19 August.
… Read More
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Louis_of_Battenberg.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.