Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh (born 6 August 1844 and died 30 July 1900), was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in the peerage of the United Kingdom on 24 May 1866. He succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire on 23 August 1893.

Command Assignments

While still in command of the Galatea the Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on January 24, 1867 for his voyage round the world. On 7 June 1867, he left Gibraltar and reached the Cape on 24 July, and landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on October 31. Being the first English prince to visit Australia, the duke was received with the greatest enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania. On March 121868, on his second visit to Sydney that, in a visit in aid of the Sailors' Home, in the harbourside suburb of Clontarf , he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by alleged Fenian sympathiser Henry James O'Farrell. Alfred soon recovered from his minor injuries and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April. O'Farrell was arrested at the scene, quickly tried, convicted and hanged on 21 April 1868.

Related Topics:
Duke of Edinburgh - January 24 - 7 June - 1867 - 24 July - Glenelg - South Australia - October 31 - Adelaide - Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane - Tasmania - March 12 - 1868

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He reached Spithead on 26 June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months. He was also the first member of the Royal Family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on HMS Galatea. The Duke's next voyage was to India, where he arrived in December 1869. Both there and at Hong Kong, which he visited on the way, he was the first British prince to set foot in the country. The native rulers of India vied with one another in the magnificence of their entertainments during the Duke's stay of three months.

Related Topics:
26 June - 1868 - India - Hong Kong

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