The Birth of Prince John, The Lost Prince
Prince John Charles Francis of Wales was born on July 12, 1905, to the Prince and Princess of Wales, later King George V and Queen Mary.
He was the youngest child of George and Mary, joining his siblings Edward, Albert, Mary, George and Henry.
Prince John, or Johnny as he was known to his family, was diagnosed epileptic at the age of 4 and is also believed to have had either autism or a learning disability.
The year after his diagnosis, John’s parents became King and Queen, thrusting the family into the spotlight. He was unable to attend the Coronation because the royal doctors believed it would have been too damaging to his health.
Eventually, George and Mary were convinced by those around them that John was “not presentable to the outside world.” And so, John was kept away from public engagements.
This did not mean that his family’s love towards him diminished. King George, a notably strict and disciplinarian father, had a soft spot for John and would always “show him kindness and affection,” and let him get away with more mischief than his older siblings.
John developed a close relationship with his nanny, Charlotte Bill, known to the family as “Lala”. With the outbreak of World War I, John saw his parents less and less due to their duties, and his siblings had all gone off to school.
The last public portrait of John was commissioned in 1913, when he was eight years old. After this, he disappeared from the public eye.
In the years leading up to his death, his seizures grew more frequent and severe, and he was moved to Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate, with Lala. He was unable to spend much time with his brothers and sister, because his seizures would frighten them, and their relationships with him dented.
At Sandringham, John had his own household, and tutors were brought to attempt to teach him, but after some time it was decided that although he was capable of “coherent thought and expression,” he could not make any educational progress, and his lessons stopped altogether.
John also visited with his grandmother, Queen Alexandra, who lived in the main house at Sandringham. She had a garden at the house created especially for him, where they would spend time together, something which became “one of John’s greatest pleasures.”
John spent Christmas Day with his family at Sandringham House in 1918. A couple of weeks later, he had a massive seizure. Afterwards, he fell asleep, and died peacefully at Wood Farm in the evening of January 18, 1919. He was 13 years old.
Following his death, Queen Mary wrote to a friend: “For him it is a great relief, as his malady was becoming worse as he grew older, & he has thus been spared much suffering. I cannot say how grateful we feel to God for having taken him in such a peaceful way, he just slept quietly into his heavenly home, no pain, no struggle, just peace for the poor little troubled spirit which had been a great anxiety to us for many years, ever since he was four years old.” She also later wrote in her diary that she “[missed] the child very much indeed.”
His eldest brother, Edward (later King Edward VIII), reacted rather cruelly, referring to John’s death as “little more than a regrettable nuisance.” He wrote a horrible letter on the subject to their mother, which he later apologised for.
John was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary Magdalene at Sandringham a few days after his death. The royal family attend church there every year on Christmas Day.
