THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DRAGOONS
THE JOURNAL on THE ROYAL DRAG OONS'
DEATH OF THE EX-CROWN PRINCE WILLIAM BY BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR ERNEST MAKINS, K.B.E., cs, D.s.o.
HE death of the former German Crown Prince brings back many memories of the visit he paid to the Regiment at Muttra in January, 1911. He died on 20th July, aged69, in a small villa at Hechingen in the United States Zone in Germany; a sad close to a life, which began at the Marble Palace, Potsdam, on 6th May, 1882, and which became the sport of Fate, owing to the follies of his fathertand the crimes of Hitler. Amid the general rejOiCing over the birth of an heir to the Imperial Crown, there was no foreboding of his ultimate destiny, nor could anyone have foretold the disasters in store for Germany consequential to the megalomaniacal policy of the Kaiser in plunging his
country into war in an attempt to conquer Europe and the world. So far in the history of mankind every man who has sought world domination has failed. The Emperor had arranged a foreign tour for the Crown Prince to include Egypt, India and the Far East, ending up in China, for the furtherance of German prestige, and the educa— tion of his son. The Princess Cecilia, wife of the Crown Prince, accompanied her husband on his visit .to Egypt, but then returned home, leaving him to continue his voyage alone. As part of the Prince’s Indian tour, we. were informed by the Indian Government that it had been arranged for him to pay a visit of three days (later extended to a whole week)'to his father’s Regiment, “ The Royals,” of which the Kaiser was Colonel-in—Chief. We were instructed to treat him quite informally as .a Regimental Officer during his stay. This sounded all right on paper, but we soon discovered that he would be accompanied by a staff consisting of an Ambassador, H.E. Herr von Treutler, four Officers, including General
Graf zu Dohna, commander of the Guards Cavalry Division, and the historian, Dr. Wiedenman; in addition to these, he was to be attended by a British staff of two civilians and two Officers under the leadership of Sir Harold Stuart, of the Indian Civil Service. . This party was to be accompanied by the usual host of native servants and followers. It had to be pointed out to the Indian Govern— ment that we could not undertake to accommodate all these, as had been suggested, in the small cantonment of Muttra, where only one regiment was stationed, and where there were
'The Crown Charrington,
Prince of | Germany and Captain of the Royals, having changed
uniforms. only a few indifferent bungalows, which were fully occupied. The Government realised the situation and forthwith arranged to com« mandeer the Collector’s bungalow for the Prince, which was reconditioned for him, and a special bathroom installed; while the Viceroy’s Camp was to be pitched in the compound for the rest of his staff. . The Crown Prince and his retinue arrived in the Viceroy’s train on the morning of 'Sunday, Ist January, 1911. I had had to submit a pro~ gramme for the visit, which wasapproved, and duly carried out. To begin With we held a ceremonial ‘parade’ in review order on the Maidan, at which he took the salute, and gave an address to the Regiment in hollow square, to which I replied; he afterwards led the Regiment back to barracks. One morning was devoted to a tour of the barracks with inspec— tions of recruit drill, the riding establishment-
and skill at arms, when the Princ e and Officers on his staff tried their hands at tent-pegging. Another morning was occupied with a galloping field day, which greatly impressed General Graf zu Dohna. We galloped throu gh the Kadir country, forming into squadron column of troops in the thicker bush, reforming into line again in the open, and finishing up with a charge. The General informed me that the regiments of his Guards Cavalry Divis ion would have had many lame horses after such a day, and expressed surprise when I told him next morning that there was not a single casualty. Polo proved a great attraction to the Prince and we arranged for games on no less than five days in the late afternoon. He had played in a few games in India before coming to us, and had been treated with great deference, had been allowed to play about with the ball as he liked, and not ridden off. It was rather a change for him, when Major “ Mouse ” Tomkinson, sailing down the ground, yelled out to him, “ Get out of my way and don’t stand over the ball.” However, I think he rather appreciated being treated like one of ourselves, took it all in good part, and international relations were not jeopa rdised. We initiated him into the great sport of pig— sticking, for which Muttra was renow ned. As I felt some qualms for his safety in this somewhat dangerous sport, and in order to cover my responsibility in case of accident, I got two Officers of the Regiment to loan him their horses, each of which had already won the Kadir Cup—Capt. Turner’s “ Luck ” and Julian Grenfell’s “ The Hawk ”—and at the same time I arranged with the Government to guarantee the owners against loss. We had a very good afternoon at Koila Zhil, where the Prince speared two pig, and three of his staff one‘ each —Genera1 Graf zu Dohna, Major Graf zu Solms and Lt. von Zobeltitz. It was a treat to see the old General, well over 60 years of age, riding hard and showing no fear. We formed one heat to include Major Tomkinson, Capt. Miles, the Prince and myself, the two former to shephe rd the pig, and myself to help him to spear it. We had another good afternoon at Dangau lie, where the Prince got two more pig. I had the head of his best boar, 3oin., set up by Rowla nd Ward, and sent on to him later. Several of the Prince’s staff were taken out to shoot blackbuck and crocodiles by Capt. Henry Jump and his shikari. When shooting croco— diles this shikari provided himself with a lot of native women’s bangles and other jewelle ry, which he surreptitiously inserted into the stomachs of the reptiles, when skinning them.
7'
These articles used to be sometimes found inside crocodiles who had surprised native women when washing clothes or fetching water on the banks of the river and made a meal of them. These grim relics of human traged ies were
highly prized by the sportsmen.
Goats, which
had been heavily impregnated with bhang, were provided for the crocodiles, which made them so ' comatose that no amount of noise or chatter during the stalk disturbed them. The Prince honoured the Officers by dining in Mess on three evenings, on one of which we got him to send for his fiddle, on which he was no mean performer. The Regiment was equal to the occasion and Capt. Turner, who also possessed a fiddle, brought his instrument along and we were treated to some duets. These duets were not taken too seriously, as may well be imagined, played, as they were, in the anteroom after a very good dinner in a superc harged convivial atmosphere—any squeaks, scratc hes or other cacophonous sounds were greete d with great hilarity by the audience. On the evening before his departure he presented me with a jewelled gold cigarette case, which I passed on to the Officers’ Mess, where it still remain s as a memento of his visit. He dined one nightiin my bungalow before attending a perfor mance. of our Regimental circus, which had attain ed considerable fame in India, and continued afterwards in South Africa. The Prince entertained some of the Ofl‘icer s to dinner in his own camp on one night and also gave a reception to the whole cantonment. He paid a special visit to the Sergeants’ Mess, where he was photographed with all the stafi— and before he left he presented 13 of them with the medal of the Red Eagle and the Crown of Prussia. It was during his stay that he exchanged uniforms and was photographed with Capt. “ Kid ” Charrington, who looked extrem ely smart, dressed up in the Prince’s white unifo rm of the Gardes-du-Corps, sporting the Order of the Black Eagle and other decorations. This exchange came about owing to the occasi on when the Kaiser inspected “The Royal s” at Shorncliffe in 1903; in the Ofiicers’ Mess after the parade the Kaiser was introduced to the Officers and, on meeting Charrington, had remarked on his likeness to his own son. The Prince had heard all about this incident and was full of curiosity to meet his double, and then suggested that they should change into each other’s kits. We did our best to keep this photo— graph strictly private, but it proved too big a scoop for the Simla photographer, who forth-