Page 158 - They Also Served

Broadstairs then Eton, with a view to toughening him up, the prince became the first child of a reigning monarch to be educated at school.
Eton certainly had the desired effect as, although not especially academic, Henry excelled at cricket and football, and his housemaster described him as ‘willing, cheerful, modest and obedient’. The king, no lover of intellectuals, was pleased and more so as Henry outgrew his brothers. However, unlike his brothers, he did not join the Royal Navy but trained at Sandhurst, being commissioned into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in July 1919. Transferring to the 10th Royal Hussars, he was promoted to captain in 1927, but his desire to forge a meaningful military career and serve on operations on the North-West Frontier was frustrated by his position as a senior royal. Created Duke of Gloucester in 1928, he served as an ADC to his father and staff captain in the 2nd Cavalry Brigade before promotion to major in 1935 saw him as ADC to his brother King Edward VIII. After the abdication, and the accession of George VI, Henry was effectively retired from active duty. Promoted to major- general, he became ADC to the king.
The outbreak of war seemed an ideal opportunity for the duke to renew his army career and he went to France with the BEF as a liaison officer. In this capacity, he had a lucky escape when the hotel he had just departed from was bombed and, soon after, he was wounded when his staff car was attacked by German aircraft. As the senior adult in line to the throne, he would have become regent to Princess Elizabeth on the death of the king, so was deemed too valuable to risk. An embarrassed general staff, having manifestly failed to protect the king’s brother, ordered him home.
In late 1944, the duke was appointed governor-general of Australia, where he excelled and was highly popular. In later life he suffered a series of strokes, the first following a car crash returning from Winston Churchill’s funeral. Indeed, when his eldest son was killed in a plane crash in 1972, the duke was not told. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974. His wife, Alice, was the longest-lived British royal ever when she died in 2004 aged 102. There is no doubt the tall, powerfully built duke would have made a good soldier and his greatest ambition was to command the 10th Royal Hussars. His earthy language, fondness of whisky and reputation as a womaniser in his youth endeared him to many Australians. However, his military ambition was unfulfilled, and his waspish oldest brother unkindly referred to him as ‘the unknown soldier’.
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