Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameSir Alexander William George DUFF, 1ST DUKE OF FIFE, 6TH EARL OF FIFE , 3975
Birth1849, Edinburgh
Death1912
EducationEton
FatherJames DUFF, 5TH EARL OF FIFE , 3970 (1814-1879)
MotherLady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth HAY , 3971 (1829-1869)
Spouses
Marriage1889, Buckingham Palace
ChildrenAlexandra , 3977 (1891-1959)
 Maud , 3979 (1893-1945)
 Alastair , 3980 (1890-1890)
Notes for Sir Alexander William George DUFF, 1ST DUKE OF FIFE, 6TH EARL OF FIFE
Succeeded his father in 1879.

Before succeeding to the peerage he became Lord-Lieutenant of Elginshire, and he was M.P. for Elgin and Nairn from 1874. He was also Captain of the Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, and was a highly popular peer.

The climax of the fortunes of his family was reached when in 1889 he married Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales, afterwards the late King Edward. Already, in 1889, he had been created an Earl of the United Kingdom, and two days after his marriage he was made a Duke. In 1900, seeing he had no sons, he was further created Earl of Macduff and Duke of Fife, with special remainder to his first and other daughters by the Princess Louise, and their male issue, and in 1905 his wife received the title of the Princess Royal, while her daughters were ordained to bear the title of Princess and to rank immediately after all members of the Royal Family bearing the style of Royal Highness.

A great sensation was caused, when in 1912, the vessel in which the Duke and his Duchess, with their two daughters, were sailing to the east, was shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. None of the family was drowned, but the Duke’s health gave way, and he died shortly afterwards. He was succeeded in the honours and estates of the dukedom by his elder daughter, Her Highness the Princess Alexandra Victoria Duff, who in the following year married H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught.


From Wikipedia:

Fife served as Member of Parliament for the Elginshire and Nairnshire constituency, in Scotland, from 1874 to 1879. On 7 August 1879, he succeeded his father as 6th Earl Fife in the Peerage of Ireland (and as 2nd Baron Skene in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which title gave him a seat in the House of Lords). He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms from 1880 to 1881, and served on a special diplomatic mission to the King of Saxony in 1882. He was also Lord-Lieutenant Elginshire from 1872 to 1902. In 1885, Queen Victoria created him Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He helped found the Chartered Company of South Africa, and served as one of its vice presidents until the 1896 Jameson Raid.
Marriage
On Saturday 27 July 1889, Lord Fife married Princess Louise of Wales, the eldest daughter of the then-Prince and Princess of Wales, at the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. The couple were third cousins in descent from George III. The wedding marked the second time a descendant of Queen Victoria married a British subject (the first being the marriage of The Princess Louise, the Queen's fourth daughter, to Lord Lorne). Two days after the wedding, the Queen elevated Lord Fife to the further dignity of Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
The marriage of the Duke of Fife and Princess Louise produced three children:
Alastair Duff, Marquess of Macduff (stillborn 1890).
Lady Alexandra Duff (17 May 1891 – 26 February 1959) married her first cousin once removed Prince Arthur of Connaught (13 January 1883 – 12 September 1938), and had issue.
Lady Maud Duff (3 April 1893 – 14 December 1945) married the 11th Earl of Southesk, and had issue.
Titles and honours
The Duke of Fife received a fresh patent as Duke of Fife and Earl of Macduff in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in April 1900, with special remainder to his daughters by Princess Louise and their heirs male. The result was that he held two Dukedoms of Fife; the 1889 creation (with the subsidiary Marquessate of Macduff) would become extinct in the absence of a son and the 1900 creation (with the subsidiary Earldom of Macduff) would devolve upon his elder daughter in the absence of a son. In November 1905, his father-in-law, now King Edward VII, bestowed the title Princess Royal on the Duchess of Fife and declared that Lady Alexandra Duff and Lady Maud Duff should henceforth hold the title of Princess of Great Britain and Ireland with the style Highness.
Queen Victoria created the future Duke of Fife a Knight of the Thistle in 1881. He received the Royal Victorian Chain in 1902. His brother-in-law, King George V, created him an Extra Knight of the Garter. He was also sworn a Privy Counsellor in 1880.[4] At the coronation of his father-in-law, King Edward VII, in August 1902, and again at the coronation of George V in June 1911, the Duke of Fife acted as Lord High Constable. In addition to his London residence, 15 Portman Square, the Duke owned two estates in Scotland: Mar Lodge, Aberdeenshire, and Mountcoffer House, Banff.
Later life
In December 1911, while sailing to Egypt on the SS Delhi, the Duke and his family were shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. Although they escaped unharmed, the Duke fell ill with pleurisy, probably contracted as a result of the shipwreck. He died at Aswan in Egypt in January 1912, and his elder daughter, Princess Alexandra, succeeded to the 1900 Dukedom, becoming the Duchess of Fife and Countess of Macduff in her own right.[5] The Duke's other titles, including the 1889 Dukedom, became extinct. The Duke was buried in the Private Chapel, Mar Lodge Mausoleum, Braemar, Aberdeenshire.
Last Modified 19 Jan 2011Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh