Royalty Killed in Action in World War I (The Great War)

[bluetoria]

Please could anyone help me to compile of complete list of all the princes who were killed in action (or an active service) between 1870-1918.
I'm not really sure if this should go in the Hohenzollerns but since the majority of these are from German states, I hope it's okay to put it here.
These are what I've got:
Serge of Leuchtenburg 1877
Louis, Prince Imperial 1879
Christian Victor 1900
Frederick of Saxe-Meiningen 1914
Maurice of Battenberg 1914
Max of Hesse Kassel 1914
Oleg Konstantinovich 1914
Frederick William of Hesse Kassel 1916
Konstantin Bagration 1916 (?)
Frederick Karl of Prussia 1917
Emich of Leiningen 1918
Please could anybody tell me if there are anymore? Thank you  

[grandduchessella]

Prince Henry of Battenberg, 1895 or 1896 (Ashanti campaign)

[grandduchessella]

These are from WW1. I don't know what all info you may want so I added to the list that you'd already compiled information about their deaths.

Prince Heinrich of Bavaria - KIA Monte Sule, Transylvania 8 Nov. 1916

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse - d. of wounds received in action near Kara (Kurm) Orman, Dobroudja, Roumania 12/13 Sept. 1916

Prince Maximilian of Hesse- d. of wounds received in action at Saint-Jean-Chappelle, near Bailleul, France 13 Oct. 1914

Prince Umberto of Savoy, Count of Salemi  KIA Crespano del Grapfen 19 Oct. 1918

Prince Heinrich of Liechtenstein - d. of wounds received in action at Warsaw 16 Aug. 1915 (served in Austrian Army)

prince Ernst of Lippe- KIA Villiers-les-Guise, near St-Quentin, France 28 Aug. 1914

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Lippe kia Liege, Belgium 6 Aug. 1914 (**oldest royal killed, age 56 and also first to be killed )

Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia  KIA St-Bouvray, near Rouen, France 6 April 1917

Prince Heinrich XLI Reuss - KIA Bivolita, Roumania 29 Nov. 1916

Prince Heinrich XLIV Reuss- d. of wounds received in action at Laon at Glochau 29 Oct. 1918 (**making him last to die in the war)

Prince Heinrich XLVI Reuss(brother of above) - KIA (at the battle of) La Bassée, Belgium 20 Oct. 1914

(**these 2 as well as the Hesse boys were the 2 sets of brothers killed, the Reuss lines confuse me in general)

Prince Heinrich XXXVIII Reuss-- KIA Ligny, near Brabant-sur-Meuse, Belgium 22 Mar. 1918

Prince Oleg Constantinovitch - d. of wounds received in action (while in a cavalry charge against
the Germans) at Vilna 12 Oct.1914 (***he was the only royal on the Allied side to die during WW1 according the Prince David Chavchavadze)

Prince Ernst of Saxe-Meiningen - KIA Maubeuge, Nord, France 27 Aug. 1914

Prince Friedrich of Saxe-Meiningen (**father of above)- kia Tarcienne, near Charleroi, Belgium 23 Aug. 1914 (so they died within days of each other    as well as being only father/son duo to be killed)

Prince Albert of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach - KIA Gouzeaucourt, Nord, France 9 Sept. 1918

Prince Wolrad Friedrich of Waldeck and Pyrmont ( son of Georg Viktor, Fürst zu Waldeck und Pyrmont and Princess Luise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg so I'm not sure if he was nephew to Duchess of Albany & Queen Emma of Netherlands or also of Dona, I'll have to check that out further)- KIA Moorslede, Belgium 17 Oct. 1914

[Jim1026]

Prince Wolrad Friedrich of Waldeck and Pyrmont ( son of Georg Viktor, Fürst zu Waldeck und Pyrmont and Princess Luise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg so I'm not sure if he was nephew to Duchess of Albany & Queen Emma of Netherlands or also of Dona, I'll have to check that out further)- KIA Moorslede, Belgium 17 Oct. 1914  

The site An online Gotha says that Prince Wolrad is a nephew of The Duchess of Albany and Queen Emma and
that he was killed 14 October 1914 at Moors Lede. France vice Belgium.

[kmerov]

Wow, great info! I didnt even know that so many princes were killed!
Most of them seem to be of minor german royalty.

[HerrKaiser]

It was still the custom in Germany during WWI (and I think WWII) that the nobility had a duty to God, Kaiser  and Fatherland. They often took the lead in war. It was German military theory to put the best, most educated, and most capable men in the front lines, thinking they'd do better at winning. The toll in WWI was such that the so-called lower classes had to be conscripted and the devasting losses were throughout classes and age groups.

[bluetoria]

That must have been very noble...but also extremely sad...particularly for poor Mossy losing both Max & Fritz (and didn't she lose another son in WWII?)

[grandduchessella]

That must have been very noble...but also extremely sad...particularly for poor Mossy losing both Max & Fritz (and didn't she lose another son in WWII?)

Yes, she did--Christopher who was married to Prince Philip's sister Sophie (daughter of Alice Battenberg and Andrew of Greece). And she lost 2 daughters-in-law during WW2--Philip's wife, Princess Mafalda of Italy (interned in Buchenwald and died after a bombing raid when her injured arm was left untreated--more about this in the Savoy thread) and Princess Marie Alexandra of Baden who also died in a bombing raid (over Frankfurt, I believe)

I didn't mean know personally!!

I know--I was joshing!  

There are 2 more interesting tidbits relating to 'non-European' royalty. There had been a Brazilian royal family (picked from European ala Greece) and in exile, the descendants lived in Europe. Thus (and I need to amend the list of brothers who died in WW1):

Prince Luiz of Orleans e Bragança, Prince of Brazil, Prince Imperial (born in Brazil, descended from the House of Orleans) and married to Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He served as an officer in the British Army died from an illness contracted while on active service (ala Christle)  in WWI at the
front Belgium at Cannes, France.

Prince Antonio Gastao of Orleans e Bragança, Prince of Brazil. He served as an officer in the British Army and died in a plane crash at Edmonton, England 29 Nov 1918

[grandduchessella]

Hon.Albert Edward George Augustus Keppel
KIA (not royal but is he related to EVII's paramour Alice by any chance?) Ypres 1917

These are minor houses--are some of them even royal?

Graf Ottokar of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg KIA 1914
Graf Adolf of Erbach-Fürstenau KIA 1915
Graf Wolf Ernst of Stolberg-Wernigerode KIA 1918

Hereditary Prince Philipp Hermann of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich KIA 1918
Prince Ferdinand of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich KIA 1918
(either related to Onor?)

Heredity Prince Emanuel of Salm-Salm KIA 1916
Prince Baudoin de Ligne KIA 1914
Prince  Alexandre de Ligne KIA 1914
Prince Nicholas Radziwill KIA 1914
Prince Albrecht of Saxe-Weimar KIA 1918
Prince Alexander of Ratibor (related to the Hohenlohes) KIA 1915

[PrinceEddy1864]

I always thought it was so sadly ironic that Queen Victoria's youngest grandchild (Maurice of Battenberg)was killed in a war that her eldest grandchild had a significant part in starting, or at least perpetuating. I wonder how Willy felt about the loss of his young cousin in battle, or if he thought anything of it at all.

[grandduchessella]

That is a sad irony, isn't it?  

a photo of Ena at Maurice's gravesite in Ypres (Beatrice had requested that he be buried where he fell, along with his comrades, rather than be brought back home)


a memorial to Maurice Battenberg in England

[bluetoria]

Prince Ernst of Lippe- KIA Villiers-les-Guise, near St-Quentin, France 28 Aug. 1914

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Lippe kia Liege, Belgium 6 Aug. 1914 (**oldest royal killed, age 56 and also first to be killed )

Prince Oleg Constantinovitch - d. of wounds received in action (while in a cavalry charge against
the Germans) at Vilna 12 Oct.1914 (***he was the only royal on the Allied side to die during WW1 according the Prince David Chavchavadze)



This information is wonderful. The more you go into it & see how young they were is absolutely heartbreaking!
Prince David Chav...cannot be quite right - Maurice Battenberg?
Of the princes of Lippe do you know if Ernest & Frederick William were related? (I know who Fred. Wm. was but I can't place Ernst.)
The saddest of all (now that you've given the exact dates) is still, IMO, poor Max of H-K...only one week to the day before his 21st birthday!
I read the terribly moving account of his wishing to send back a locket containing her picture to Mossy as he lay dying (brought to her eventually via Queen Mary & Daisy Connaught)...& when you think of what he said in Alice Topham's memoirs about '"War isn't like that [glorious] at all...my father says it's horrible."  

THANK YOU for the info!

[HerrKaiser]

Are there any reasons other than luck why only one or a few royals died from the Allied side in WWI? Did the British government selectively grant them deferments?

[bluetoria]

Maybe it's due to what you wrote before about the German nobles going first into battle. The Allies must have kept their higher ranking officers back (isn't that why the ordinary soldiers always complained about them?)

[grandduchessella]

prince Ernst of Lippe- KIA Villiers-les-Guise, near St-Quentin, France 28 Aug. 1914

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Lippe kia Liege, Belgium 6 Aug. 1914 (**oldest royal killed, age 56 and also first to be killed )

Prince Oleg Constantinovitch - d. of wounds received in action (while in a cavalry charge against
the Germans) at Vilna 12 Oct.1914 (***he was the only royal on the Allied side to die during WW1 according the Prince David Chavchavadze)
/quote]


This information is wonderful. The more you go into it & see how young they were is absolutely heartbreaking!
Prince David Chav...cannot be quite right - Maurice Battenberg?Of the princes of Lippe do you know if Ernest & Frederick William were related? (I know who Fred. Wm. was but I can't place Ernst.)THANK YOU for the info!

You're right--that struck me too. Maybe he meant Romanov?

Here's the Lippe info (best as I could gather because geneaology isn't my strong suit):

Ernst Julius Adalbert Emil Wilhelm Gustav Karl Philipp KIA Aug 1914 at age 22--son of Rudolf of Lippe & Princess Louise of Ardeck

Rudolf’s brother and Ernst’s uncle was Friedrich Wilhelm who was KIA Aug 1914 (same month as nephew) at 56!

Interestingly, it was his daughter Calixta (I see where she got the unusual name--her father's last name of 6 was Calixt) who married Henry & Irene’s son Waldemar in 1919. Also a cousin married the poor Duchess Marie of Mecklenberg-Strelitz (she of the illegitimate child and horrible 1st marriage) and another cousin who married Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. (I need to actually calculate it—I’m not sure of degree of cousinhood but I don’t think it’s super-distant, not 4th or 5th or anything).