| Variations of Name | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn |
| Biography | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert; 1 May 1850 16 January 1942) was a member of the British Royal Family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.
Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Arthur was educated by private tutors before at the age of 16 entering the Royal Military College at Woolwich. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the British Army, where he served for some 40 years, seeing service in various parts of the British Empire. During this time he was also created as a royal duke, becoming the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, as well as the Earl of Sussex. He was appointed as Governor General of Canada in 1911 by his nephew, King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith, to replace the Earl Grey as viceroy, occupying the post until succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire in 1916. Given his military service, the selection of Arthur proved to be prudent, as he acted as the King's, and thus the Canadian Commander-in-Chief's, representative through the first years of World War I.
After the end of his viceregal tenure, Arthur returned to the United Kingdom and there, as well as in India, performed various royal duties, while also again taking up military duties. Though he retired from public life in 1928, he continued to make his presence known in the army well into the Second World War, just before his death in 1942; at the time of his death, he was Queen Victoria's last surviving son.
Prince Arthur was elected as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England and was subsequently re-elected as such an additional 37 times before 1939, when the Prince was nearly 90 years of age. |