Prince William of Gloucester

Prince William of Gloucester (William Henry Andrew Frederick; 18 December 1941 – 28 August 1972) was a member of the British royal family. The elder son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, he was a grandson of George V, nephew of Edward VIII and George VI, and first cousin of Elizabeth II. At birth, he was fourth in line to the throne; by the time of his death, he was ninth. A graduate of Cambridge and Stanford, he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving in Lagos and Tokyo before returning to undertake royal duties.

He was the most recent descendant of George III to be diagnosed with porphyria, a condition thought to have caused George III’s mental breakdown, and in William’s case, it was most likely hereditary. William died in 1972, aged 30, in an air crash while piloting his plane during a competition.

Early life

William was born on 18 December 1941 at the Lady Carnarvon Nursing Home in Hadley Common, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. His father was the third son of King George V and Queen Mary, and his mother was the third daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Margaret Bridgeman.

He was baptised in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle on 22 February 1942 by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were King George VI (his paternal uncle), Queen Mary (his paternal grandmother), Princess Helena Victoria (his paternal first cousin twice-removed), Lady Margaret Hawkins (his maternal aunt), Major Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott (his maternal uncle) and John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, who was unable to attend. Due to wartime restrictions, newspapers did not disclose the actual location of the christening, and said instead that it took place at "a private chapel in the country".

At the time of William's birth, and for months afterwards, Henry was away on military duties, some involving considerable risk. This prompted George VI to write to his sister-in-law, assuring her that, should anything happen to his brother, he would become Prince William's guardian.

In 1947, William served as a page boy at the wedding of his cousin Princess Elizabeth to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The other page boy was Prince Michael of Kent. In 1953, he attended her coronation.

William spent his early childhood at Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire and later in Canberra, Australia, where his father served as Governor-General from 1945 to 1947. After returning to England, he was educated at Wellesley House School, a prep school in Broadstairs, Kent, then at Eton College, where he was noted in the Eton College Chronicle for his performance in junior cricket and awarded house colours for football. After leaving Eton in 1960, he went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read history, graduating with a BA in 1963, later raised to an MA (Cantab.) in 1968. After Cambridge, he then undertook a post-baccalaureate year at Stanford University, studying political science, American history, and business.

Career After returning to Britain, William took a position with Lazards, a merchant bank.

He was the second member of the British royal family to work in the civil service or diplomatic service (the first was his uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, in the 1920s). He joined the Commonwealth Office in 1965 and was posted to Lagos as third secretary at the British High Commission.

William occasionally served as Counsellor of State during the Queen's absence. The relationship was further explored in the 2015 Channel 4 TV documentary, The Other Prince William. Despite the reported reluctance of senior members of the royal family to take William's relationship with Starkloff seriously, marriage standards within the royal family were no longer as strict as they had been. Princess Margaret, while not encouraging William, did sympathise with him in this regard and advised him to "wait a bit" and to "see how everything looks" once he returned to Britain.

Health Shortly before transferring to Tokyo in August 1968, William was examined by a Royal Air Force doctor, Headly Bellringer, at the request of his mother. He reported having suffered from jaundice, beginning in December 1965 and lasting several months. He had subsequently noticed that his skin was prone to a blistering rash, particularly when exposed to sunlight. Bellringer tentatively diagnosed porphyria, prescribed sunblock cream and gave him a medical warning card regarding the need to avoid certain medications. Although aware of the theory of the royal family's history of porphyria then being advanced by Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter, Bellringer stated he "tried not to let it influence him...with all the symptoms, I was left with little option but to diagnose the Prince's condition as porphyria." He was later examined by haematologists at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, and also by a Professor Ishihara in Tokyo; both of whom also concluded he was suffering from variegate porphyria, by then in remission.

A reliable diagnosis of porphyria in a member of the British royal family lent weight to the theoryfirst advanced by Professor Ida Macalpine in the late 1960sthat porphyria was the underlying cause of the ill-health of both Mary, Queen of Scots (an ancestor of both of William's parents) and George III. The theory further proposed that the disorder may have been inherited by members of the royal families of the United Kingdom, Prussia, and several German duchies and principalities.

Death A licensed pilot and President of the British Light Aviation Centre, William owned several aircraft and competed in amateur air show races. On 28 August 1972, he was competing in the Goodyear International Air Trophy at Halfpenny Green near Wolverhampton. Vyrell Mitchella pilot with whom he had often racedwas listed as a passenger. Shortly before the race started, the wind direction changed and a different take-off runway was brought into use. This required the race participants to turn left as soon as possible after take-off to establish themselves in the previously planned race circuit. Shortly after take-off and while at a very low altitude, the Piper Cherokee banked steeply into the left turn; the bank angle was so great that the pilot was unable to maintain height and the aircraft sank towards the ground until its port wing hit a tree, shearing off. The out-of-control plane flipped over and crashed into an earthen bank, bursting into flames. William and Mitchell were killed. The crash occurred in front of approximately 30,000 spectators. The fire took two hours to bring under control, and the two men were formally identified at the inquest the following day through dental records.

William was buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore. The comprehensive school in Oundle, which he opened in 1971, was renamed Prince William School in his memory. His will was sealed in London after his death in 1972. His estate was valued at £416,001 (or £3.9 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).

William was the heir apparent of his father's peerages, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster, and Baron Culloden. Upon his death, his younger brother Prince Richard became heir apparent, and succeeded to these peerages in 1974. William was the first grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary to die.

Honours and arms

Honours Counsellor of State, 1962–1971

Commander-in-Chief of the St John Ambulance Brigade, 1968 Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS), 1971

Ancestry