Monday, 14 September 2026

Battenberg Dublin 1916

One of the characters on General Maxwell's staff during the Easter Rising was Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Alexander Battenberg. The website linked suggests he was wounded at least twice but it is hard to get to the bottom of these.


He appears to have been awarded a medal for his staff work during the Rising - possibly a serious paper cut while undertaking staff work or a boil from sitting at desks. No wounds suffered in combat but he had stomach issues before the Rising and piles after it. Possibly the two "wounds" alluded to earlier.




While a number of LGBTQIA+ are identified in the Irish Volunteers/ICA, Battenberg would appear to be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in the British forces.

He was amongst the British establishment with Germanic names who had to change surname in 1917 when the Royal Family chose to become the House of Windsor and leave behind their Saxe-Coburg-Gotha name. Battenberg chose to go with the English form Mountbatten.

Post war he would become the Marquess Carisbrooke - no link that I know of to the Carisbrooke House, scene of fighting during the Easter Rising before the Sherwood Foresters reached 25 Northumberland Road/Mount Street Bridge.



Battenberg's son in law would be another man who changed his name, though just a bit. Major Hamilton Joseph Keyes O'Malley-Keyes (later changed to just O'Malley), an Irish Guards officer and then Glider Pilot Regiment. Landed at Arnhem in September 1944 and captured after being wounded in the stomach. Possibly saw more combat than his father-in-law but got less medals for his efforts. He didn't received a Victoria Cross as suggested on a family genealogy website.

He is the second link I can find from Easter Rising participants to family members involved with gliders - the Neilan brothers nephew John Neilan becoming a glider pilot and then a test pilot.




No comments:

Post a Comment