George 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven (Battenberg) and Nadejda (Nada) de Torby

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. It did not cover too much on Nada though, as it was mostly on the Werner family and Zia.

[Marie-Mathilde]

Thankyou very much for trying to dig up something, it's so difficult trying to find anything about the two of them.

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. There are side views of them in bios of Dickie and Edwina too. Robert Golden's photo books has some photos and some gossipy tales about Nada...

[LisaDavidson]

I have a friend in England. who was tried to find out more but his resaerch did not get anywhere. It is still a touchy subject to dig into even now. Their papers are still under lock and key.

As for Miche-Miche, he was not as rich as people think. His letters to his family are full of request for money, that does not sound like a rich man to me. He was definitely well off by any standards. Although why he did not buy a house in England is a mystery, as he spend so much time in that country (his two daughters marryining into aristocratic or rich families in that country).

Rich is a relative term. Grand Duke Michael M. would have had income up until 1917, and he seemed to complain about money fairly widely throughout his life. Grand dukes were not necessarily savvy businessmen in general, which alone could explain why he leased rather than owned. That, and until the Revolution he undoubtedly would have preferred to return to Russia.

His daughters' marriages are thought to have been his source of income after the Revolution. However, in the context that most of us would understand, the Grand Duke was never poor or impoverished - but also was likely not always wise in how he spent the money he had.

[Eric_Lowe]

Not too sure about the situation of his income. Miche-Miche wanted to marry since it would give him financial freedom. When he got married to the wrong woman, he was exiled and money stopped. Later it was reinstated, but did he recieved the same amount as other grand dukes ? Also was the villa in Cannes in his name ?

Don't think he got too much from Nada 's marriage, although Zia did hit the jackpot with the Werners.

[Marc]

Found the portrait of Nadejda's ancestor,famous Abraham Petrovich Hanibal:

[LenelorMiksi]

There's quite a bit of information on George Milford-Haven in Richard Hough's book "The Mountbattens", which I just finished re-reading.  According to the book, the Mountbatten family divided themselves up two ways by personality- Victoria, Louise, and "Dickie", (the younger Louis) being the extroverts, and Louis, Alice, and George being quieter.  George was very intelligent, according to Hough "he read books on higher calculus casually in trains, or in the evening with people talking all around him".  I imagine he had to learn to read while people were talking with a mother like VMH! He reached the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy, and "He was a born leader,like his father, and possessed enormous charm.  The men loved him, and unlike his father and his younger brother, who had their difficulties, he got on immediately and very well with his fellow officers and superiors."  He served in the Navy during WWI. He retired in 1932, and worked for the British Sperry Gyroscope Company.
  There's not much on his wife in the book, unfortunately. Hough does say that when George and his younger brother were both serving in the Mediterranean Edwina and Nadejda shared Casa Medina, a villa rented in Malta, where it seems VMH would visit them.  From photographs Nadejda looks beautiful, I wonder if there are any portraits of her out there?

[Marie-Mathilde]

I find Nada and George both very interesting. In the book Indian Summer by Alex von Tunzelmann, it hints of an affair between Nada and her sister-in-law Edwina, or certainly implies that their were rumours abound at the time. Can't remember the exact circumstances but that is the only real info I have read on Nada. Does anyone know if they named their daughter Tatiana after Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, George's cousin? Or perhaps they just liked the name! (it's my favourite name by the way, sorry off topic!)

[Ilana]

That's interesting.  I've read books on Edwina and they state that no, she didn't have affairs with women, but she certainly "hung out" a lot with Nada, and Gloria Vanderbilt's mother, etc., etc.

[KarlandZita]

Interesting thread. But does someone has more pictures of Nadeja ? I'd like to see more as she seems to have been a very beautiful woman with a rich and complex personality.

Thank you in advance.

[Svetabel]

From the NY Library:



Nada as a girl

And here's she in 1916 with her husband:

[KarlandZita]

Thank You, Svetabel for the pictures.

Nadeja will be more attractive by taking the age as in her youth.

[Kalafrana]

I read somewhere (I'm trying to remember where) that as a girl of about 10 or 11 the present Queen sat next to George Mountbatten at dinner and was much impressed with him, not least because he treated her as an intelligent adult and not as a child.

Possibly in the same book, I read that he was extremely clever and technically minded, but very lazy. As a young officer he filled his cabin with gadgets of his own devising, such as a tea-making device, to avoid having to get out of bed!

He died very unpleasantly from bone cancer at the age of 46. apparently he broke a leg, it refused to heal, cancer was eventually diagnosed, the leg was amputated, but all to no avail.

[Ilana]

Kalafrana, that was probably in LOUIS & VICTORIA that you read that.  The comments from the Queen come from an interview the author conducted in the 1970's.  I believe he might have gotten that attractive characteristic of not talking down to children from his mother.

[Kalafrana]

Louis & Victoria - it may well have been. I did read it a long time ago.

A writer who mentions George Battenberg very favourably is Cecil Roberts. He was a fairly well known author between the wars (he was born in 1892-ish) and produced several volumes of autobiography (now long out of print). In the second, called, I think 'The Year of Promise' he writes of visiting the Grand Fleet a few days before the Battle of Jutland, and having a long chat with George Battneberg, and agreeing to send him parcels of the books he got to review.