Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (George William Frederick Charles; 26 March 1819 – 17 March 1904) was a member of the British royal family, a grandson of King George III and cousin of Queen Victoria. The Duke was an army officer by profession and served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces (military head of the British Army) from 1856 to 1895, and was raised to the rank of field marshal in 1862. He succeeded to the title of Duke of Cambridge in 1850 upon the death of his father Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. Deeply devoted to the old Army, he worked with Queen Victoria to defeat or minimise every reform proposal, such as setting up a general staff. His Army's weaknesses were dramatically revealed by the poor organisation at the start of the Second Boer War.
Early life George was born on 26 March 1819 at Cambridge House, Hanover.Heathcote, p. 141 His father was Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the seventh son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. His mother was the Duchess of Cambridge (née Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel).
He was baptised at Cambridge House in Hanover on 11 May 1819, by the Reverend John Sanford, his father's Domestic Chaplain. His godparents were the Prince Regent (represented by the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews), the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (represented by the 4th Earl of Mayo) and the Dowager Queen of Württemberg (represented by the Countess of Mayo).
Following his father's death in 1850, he was granted an annuity of £12,000 from the Civil List.
Military career George of Cambridge was educated in Hanover and from 1830 in England by the Rev. J. R. Wood, a canon of Worcester Cathedral. Like his father, he embarked upon a military career, initially becoming a colonel in the Hanoverian Army and then, on 3 November 1837, becoming a brevet colonel in the British Army. He was attached to the staff at Gibraltar from October 1838 to April 1839. After serving in Ireland with the 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's), he was appointed substantive lieutenant-colonel of the 8th Light Dragoons on 15 April 1842 and colonel of the 17th Lancers on 25 April 1842.
From 1843 to 1845 he served as a colonel on the staff in the Ionian islands, then was promoted Major-General on 7 May 1845. He succeeded to his father's titles of Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Tipperary, and Baron Culloden on 8 July 1850.
The Duke of Cambridge became Inspector of the Cavalry in 1852. In February 1854, at an early stage in the Crimean War of 1853–1856, he received command of the 1st Division (Guards and Highland brigades) of the British army in the East.Heathcote, p. 142 On 19 June 1854, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general.
He was present at the battles of the Alma (September 1854), Balaclava (October 1854) and Inkerman (November 1854), and at the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855).
In December 1854, owing to illness, the Earl of Cardigan returned first to Malta and then to England: before the conclusion of the Crimean campaign he was back in London."The King and his Navy and Army" 26 March 1904 Meanwhile, Lord Raglan died at 9.30 pm on 28 June 1855 from dysentery; General Simpson succeeded Raglan in commanding in the Crimea, followed by General Codrington. Field Marshal Viscount Hardinge, the serving general commanding-in-chief since 1852, was forced to resign in July 1856 on grounds of ill-health.George, HRH Duke of Cambridge, Letters and Diaries, vol.1, pp.114-124 (The Crimean War had ended in March 1856.)
On 5 July 1856, the Duke was appointed general commanding-in-chief of the British Army, a post that was re-titled field marshal commanding-in-chief on 9 November 1862 and commander-in-chief of the forces by Letters Patent on 20 November 1887. In that capacity he served as the chief military advisor to the Secretary of State for War, with responsibility for the administration of the army and the command of forces in the field. He was promoted to the rank of general on 15 July 1856 and to the rank of field marshal on 9 November 1862.
Policies
The Duke of Cambridge served as commander-in-chief for 39 years. Early in his term he encouraged the army to trial various breech-loading carbines for the cavalry, one of which—the Westley Richards—proved so effective that it was decided to investigate the possibility of producing a version for the infantry. In 1861, 100 were issued to five infantry battalions; in 1863 an order of 2,000 was placed for further trials. The Duke was also involved in the formation of the Staff College and of the Royal Military School of Music, and became governor of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich: he further sought to improve the efficiency of the army by advocating a scheme of annual military manoeuvres. In 1860 he introduced a new system to restrict corporal punishment: soldiers became eligible for flogging only in cases of aggravated mutinous conduct during wartime, unless they committed an offence serious enough to degrade to the second class and make them once again subject to corporal punishment. A year's good behaviour would return them to the first class, meaning that only a hard core of incorrigible offenders tended to be flogged.
Opposition to reforms
Under the Duke's command, the British Army became a moribund and stagnant institution. He allegedly rebuked one of his more intelligent subordinates with the words: "Brains? I don't believe in brains! You haven't any, I know, Sir!" He was equally forthright on his reluctance to adopt change: "There is a time for everything, and the time for change is when you can no longer help it."
In the wake of the Prussian victories in the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War, the Liberal Party government of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell called for the Army to undergo major reforms.Ensor, p. 16 Cardwell succeeded in pushing through a number of reforms, including one that made the commander-in-chief nominally report to the secretary of state for war.Spiers (1994)
The Duke opposed most of the reforms because they struck at the heart of his view of the Army. According to Theo Aronson, he "stoutly resisted almost every attempt at reform or modernization." He feared that the newly created force of reservists would be of little use in a colonial conflict, and that expeditionary forces would have to strip the most experienced men from the home-based battalions in order to fill the gaps in their ranks. His fears seemed to be confirmed in 1873, when Wolseley raided battalions for the expedition against the Ashanti. In 1881, when the historic numbers of regiments were abolished and facing colours standardised for English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish regiments, the Duke protested that regimental spirit would be degraded; the majority of facing colours were restored by the time of World War I, although the numbers of regiments were not.
The reforming impetus, however, continued. Parliament passed the War Office Act 1870, which formally subordinated the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces to the Secretary of State for War and in 1871 Cardwell abolished the custom of purchasing an office which had done much to instil elitism in the form of discipline and training. The Duke of Cambridge strongly resented this move, a sentiment shared by a majority of officers, who would no longer be able to sell their commissions when they retired.
Pressures for reform built up as the Duke of Cambridge aged; his strongest ally was his cousin, Queen Victoria. While the Queen insisted on reform, she was also protective of the Household brigades and their long association and traditions. An 1890 royal commission led by Lord Hartington (later the 8th Duke of Devonshire) criticised the administration of the War Office and recommended the devolution of authority from the Commander-in-Chief to subordinate military officers. A number of reformers opposed to the Duke banded together, including Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Lord Lansdowne, the Liberal and Conservative Secretaries for War between 1892 and 1900. The leading generals eager to replace the Duke were Wolseley, Buller (1802–1884), Roberts (1832–1914), and the Duke of Connaught (1850–1942). The Duke of Cambridge was forced to resign his post on 1 November 1895, and was succeeded by Lord Wolseley.Brian Bond, "The Retirement of the Duke of Cambridge", Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (1961), Vol. 106 Issue 624, pp. 544–553. On his resignation he was given the title of honorary colonel-in-chief to the Forces.
Friend of Haig
During the Duke's long career he helped to further the career progress of Douglas Haig, a talented and able young officer, who succeeded through Staff College to gain promotion. As Commander-in-Chief, the Duke was able to admit any candidate to the college so long as they passed three out of eight of the tests. Haig, who was also acquainted with Sir Evelyn Wood, left for India in 1893 knowing that the Duke had also made a friend of Henrietta Jameson (née Haig), his older sister. The Duke's nomination was made in 1894 and 1895, but Haig did not take up the place until 15 January 1896 under Army Regulations Order 72 (1896). The Duke, who was replaced by Lord Wolseley, after 32 years was not the only patron of preferment. The Staff College was not intended to educate a General Staff until much later in its historical development. However the traditional system of informal patronage was gradually giving way to more than gifted amateurs.Reid, pp. 65–66
On 22 November 1909 the reforms to which Haig, as Director of Staff Duties was a part, abolished the post of Commander-in-Chief which the Duke had made his own. In setting up the Army Council, with its head being called the Chief of the General Staff by Order in Council, the Liberal government separated the army from the monarchy.Reid, p. 168
Marriage and mistress
It is believed, according to Roger Fulford, that William IV, who had been his godfather when Duke of Clarence, had George brought up at Windsor in hope of an eventual marriage to his cousin Princess Victoria of Kent, who was two months younger. This prospective match was favoured by George's own parents, but was forestalled by Victoria's maternal uncle Leopold I of Belgium. He secured Victoria's betrothal to his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which became formal after she acceded to the British throne. In 1839 Queen Victoria wrote to Albert about George's father: "The Duke told Lord Melbourne he had always greatly desired our marriage, and never thought of George: but that I don't believe." George was one of a range of suitors considered by Victoria, the most prominent of whom, Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, was openly favoured by William.