\"Duke of Cambridge\" Prince George Hand Addressed Envelope For Sale

Up for sale the "Duke of Cambridge" Prince George Hand Addressed Envelope. 

ES-3759D

Prince George, Duke of Cambridge,

(George William Frederick Charles; 26 March 1819 – 17 March 1904) was a member

of the British Royal Family, a

male-line grandson of King George III,

cousin of Queen Victoria, and

maternal uncle of Queen Mary, consort

of King George V. 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. He became Duke of Cambridge in 1850 and field marshal in

1862. Deeply devoted to the old Army, he worked with Queen Victoria to defeat or minimize every reform

proposal, such as setting up a general staff. His Army became a moribund and

stagnant institution, lagging far behind the French Army and the German Army.

Its weaknesses were dramatically revealed by the poor organization at the start

of the Second Boer War. Prince

George was born at Cambridge House in Hanover, Germany. His father was Prince Adolphus, Duke of

Cambridge, the 10th child and seventh son of King George III and Charlotte of

Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His mother was the Duchess of Cambridge

(née Princess Augusta baptised at Cambridge House 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). Prince 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, he received

command of the 1st Division (Guards and Highland brigades) of the British army

in the East. On 19 June 1854, he was promoted to the rank present at the battles of and at the siege of Sevastopol.

Owing

to illness the Earl of

Cardigan returned first to Malta and then to England: before

the conclusion of the campaign he was back in London. Meanwhile, Lord Raglan died

at 9.30 pm on 28 June 1855 from dysentery and Field Marshal Viscount

Hardinge, the serving general commanding-in-chief, was

forced to resign in July 1856, on grounds of ill-health.

 On 5 July 1856, the Duke was the British Army, a post that was

retitled 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[12] and to the rank of field marshal on

9 November 1862.