Prince Sigismund of Prussia

Who was Prince Sigismund of Prussia?

Prince Sigismund of Prussia was the fourth child of Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia, and Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of the British Queen Victoria.

He was born at the New Palace in Potsdam, Germany, in 1864. His mother found him much cleverer and more intelligent than his three elder siblings and believed he would have great potential when he grew up. However, he died from meningitis at the New Palace on 18 June 1866, aged twenty-one months. He was buried in the royal mausoleum of the Friedenskirche at Potsdam. His mother's grief and despair were intense, as his father, leading the Prussian army into battle against Austria, had taken away all the available doctors thus making it impossible for her to alleviate the suffering of her child or to prevent his death, the memory of which would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Prince Sigismund was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria to die, almost 115 years before his last cousin Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, who died in 1981.