Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale

Biography

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward; 8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892), was the eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). From birth, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but did not become king or Prince of Wales because he died before both his father and paternal grandmother Queen Victoria.

Albert Victor was known to his family, and to many later biographers, as "Eddy". As a young man he travelled widely as a Royal Navy cadet, and as an adult he joined the British Army, though he undertook no active military duties. After two unsuccessful courtships, he became engaged in late 1891 to his second cousin once removed Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. A few weeks later, he died during a major influenza pandemic. Mary later married his younger brother, the future King George V.

Albert Victor's intellect, sexual orientation, and mental health have been the subject of speculation. Rumours in his lifetime linked him with the Cleveland Street scandal, which involved a homosexual brothel, but there is no conclusive evidence that he ever visited it or that he was homosexual. Some authors have theorised that he was the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, or that he was otherwise involved in the murders, but contemporaneous documents show that Albert Victor could not have been in London at the time, and the claim is widely dismissed.