Prince Frederick of Prussia (1911–1966)


Prince Frederick of Prussia, also known as Mr. Friedrich von Preussen in the United Kingdom, was the fourth son of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Family

On 30 July 1945, he married Lady Brigid Guinness, daughter of Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, at Little Hadham, Hertfordshire and they had five children:
He was studying at Cambridge, living incognito as the Count von Lingen, when war broke out in September 1939. He was arrested and interned in May 1940. He was held in Britain for several months, then sent to internment camps near Quebec City and soon afterwards, Farnham, Quebec. In both camps, he was elected camp leader by fellow inmates.

British naturalisation in 1947

He renounced his German citizenship in 1947. He was naturalised as a British citizen in October 1947 under the name Friedrich von Preussen. This naturalization was controversial, in part because being a descendant of Sophia of Hanover, and having rights under the Act of Settlement 1701, as amended by the Sophia Naturalisation Act 1705, he had a claim to British citizenship from birth. His status in context of his claim for compensation for property seized in Poland was debated in Parliament and the law courts until 1961.

Death

He was the owner of Reinhartshausen Castle at Erbach, Germany. While staying there in 1966, he went missing and was found two weeks later, having drowned in the Rhine, whether suicidally or accidentally could not be determined.

Ancestry