Heir Gallery

H.R.H. Prince George in California

H.R.H. Prince George at the Monetery Peninsula Country Club, California. Prince George (20 December 1902 25 August 1942) was the fourth son and fifth child of King George V and Queen Mary and the younger brother of Kings Edward VIII and George VI. He held the title of Duke of Kent from 1934 until his death in a military air-crash on 25 August 1942. The prince was passing through California to join his ship, H.M.S "Durban", on which he was serving as French interpreter. After leaving California, H.M.S "Durban" traveled at high speed to relieve the sufferers from the tornado which affected the West Indies, Miami Beach and the Coast of Florida. Date: 1928

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Prince of the Asturias & his wife

Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, RE (Alfonso P�Cristino Eduardo Francisco Guillermo Carlos Enrique Eugenio Fernando Antonio Venancio de Borb󮠹 Battenberg; 10 May 1907 6 September 1938), heir apparent to the throne of Spain from 1907 to 1931. Eldest son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife, Princess Victoria Eugenia (Ena) of Battenberg. Inherited haemophilia from his mother. Renounced his rights to the then-defunct throne to marry a commoner, Edelmira Ignacia Adriana Sampedro-Robato, in Ouchy on 21 June 1933, after which Alfonso took the courtesy title Count of Covadonga. The couple divorced 8 May 1937, with Edelmira keeping the title Countess of Covadonga. A car accident led to Alfonso's early death in 1938, at the age of 31. He crashed into a telephone booth and appeared to have minor injuries but his haemophilia led to fatal internal bleeding. Date: 1933

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Tsesarevich Nikolai of Russia

Engraving from a photograph of Nikolai, Tsesarevich of Russia (1843-1865), eldest son and heir of Tsar Alexander II. The Tsesarevich was a gifted young man trained in a liberal tradition by the finest tutors available in the expectation that he would one day have reigned as Tsar. After celebrating his engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark with his family in Darmstadt in October 1864, the Tsesarevich went on to Italy to continue the educational tour he had started some months before. In Florence he suddenly fell victim to back pain so severe, he had to be carried. He spent six weeks in bed, undergoing a series of painful treatments for a spinal abscess, and as soon as he could be moved he was taken to Nice, where his mother was spending the winter. There, French doctors disagreed with the diagnosis, viewing the 21-year-old's back pain as rheumatism and prescribing spinal massage. The massage spread the infection to Nikolai's bone marrow and brain and his condition deteriorated steadily. He died on 24 April 1865. On his deathbed he requested that Princess Dagmar should marry his younger brother Alexander. Dagmar later became Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Alexander III. Date: 6th May 1865

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans