Victims of theSpanish Flu ; Prince Eric the forgotten prince

Victims of theSpanish Flu ; Prince Eric the  forgotten prince






Prince Eric ( Erik Gustaf Louis Albert) Duke of Västmanland   was born on 20 April 1889 at the Royal Palacein Stockholm as the youngest son of the then Crown Prince Gustaf (Gustav V) from 1858 to 1950 and his wife Victoria of Baden 1862-1930.He dad  two older brothers  Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf VI Adolf) 1882-1972 and Wilhelm  1884- 1964 .His paternal Grandfather was King Oscar II 1829-1907 and grandmother Queen Sofia of Nassau. 

The previous year had been hard for the Crown Princess Victoria.both  her grandfather Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany and her younger brother Prince Louis of Baden had died. Her pregnancy was difficult and Victoria had to take strong medications, which were believed to have affected the child.

(Wikipedia photo)
Erik was small and frail at birth, and it soon became apparent that something was wrong with him. He probably suffered from some form of epilepsy, and possibly an light mental retardation. He was raised  during childhood and even later by his  and brothers an nanny Louise Rinman



Erik and  brothers Gustaf Adolf and Wilhelm 


Around 1910, Eric with his household  moved to the manor  Ballingsholm in Huddinge 
Eric  lived a reclusive life and was rarely or never at public ceremonies and events. The family and a small circle of friends sometimes visited  him on Ballingsholm.




(Image: Wikipedia BallingsHolm is currently training center and conference facility .)


Eric  is described as a friendly man. Very interested in music, geography,genealogy., history, especially the history of the Old Town in Stockholm .



(Photo Wikipedia)

In 1917 it was decided that Prince Eric should move from Ballingsholm . The reason is not fully known but it was speculated that Prince Eric had played with the servants  children and his parents dissaproved of it.It was determined that he would move to Haga Palace but then this had to be renovated first so he got  stay  at Drottningholm Palace  .

In summer 1918 Spanish flu came  to Sweden in the late summer and early autumn, it spread across the country. In September, Prince Eric fell ill soon he was hit as many of the victims of double  sided pneumonia. 
Although doctors sent word to the king and queen that he was dying, he died alone at Drottningholm.at 20 September 1918. He was buried in the Riddarholms church in Stockholm.

Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

Elizabeth Stride :Jack the Rippers Swedish victim part 1

Bild
In the  autumn of 1888 London and especially the poorer Whitchapel  of London was held captive by an unknown serial killer who killed 5 women. Despite being one of the most well known serial killers of all time and despite a big manhunt at the time by Scotland Yard, he was never caught.  He is known by the name he supposedly gave himself   JACK THE RIPPER  and for the gruesome way in which he mutilated his victims, Much have been written about Jack the Ripper and his supposed identity.There exist over 100 theories about  who he was and there has been hundreds of books written on the subject. The persons bhind the names of the 5 women commonly thought to be his victims are less wellknown. Most of them where poor women living a hard and miserable  life in Whitechapel  earning their living by taking odd jobs as cleaners and whole or part time time prostitution What is less known is that the third of his victims was Swedish. ELIZABETH STRIDE ...
Läs mer

Was The Mad trapper of Rat River of Swedish descent part 1

Bild
Albert Johnson's Destroyed  Cabin  1932 Photo : WS Carter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons In july  of 1931, a mysterious stranger  appeared in Fort McPherson, a small community in the Northwest Territories near the border with Youkon Territory i n northwestern Canada. He called himself Albert Johnson spoke with a  slight Scandinavian accent and had plenty of money. He was soon seen as a rather unfriendly recluse. This in itself was unusual in a place where kindness and helpfulness were the norm due to the isolation, the dangers and the difficulties of life in the wilderness. All the strangers who arrived attracted attention and Constable Edgar Millen of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police spoke to him, but found that he was cross and grumpy and refused to talk about why he had come and what his intentions were. Albert Johnson had  built an isolated cabin  near Rat River and made a living as a fur hunter, but in December  Inuit and ...
Läs mer

Swedes in the South: Swedes and their slaves in Charleston South Carolina

Bild
Most of the first Swedish emigrants who immigrated  to USA  before the American Civil War 1861-1865 settled in the Northern  States. A small number, however had settled in  the Southern  states which in 1861 broke away  from  the Union and founded the Confederate states of America . According to the US Federal  Census of 1850, around  680 Swedish-born  lived in the South by 1860 (accordint tho the census)they were around1200.  One of the Souths oldest and most significant cities was and is Charleston in South Carolina . The state of South Carolina, like most of the southern states at this time, was dominated by  an agrarian economy with large-scale plantation farming with slaves as labor as opposed to the more industrialized  non slavery based economy of the North. 1862 Johnson Map of North Carolina and South Carolina - Geographicus - NCSC Johnson-1862 Charlston was a thriving port city founded 1670 by En...
Läs mer