Buckingham Palace has reportedly refused a request to repatriate the remains of an Ethiopian prince who lived on the Isle of Wight before being buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th Century.
Prince Alemayehu was the son of Emperor Tewodros II who committed suicide after he was defeated at the conclusion of the British expedition to Abyssinia in 1868. Aged 7 at the time, he was brought back to England by Captain Tristram Speedy who later that year married Cornelia Cotton of Afton House in Freshwater.
It was at this time that Prince Alemayehu was photographed by the Cotton’s Freshwater neighbour Julia Margaret Cameron and at some point while staying on the Island he was taken to Osborne House to meet Queen Victoria, who took a great interest in him and paid Speedy a stipend for his education.
He went 1st to Rugby School and then to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst but he was subjected to bullying and was unhappy.
Eventually, he ended up being tutored in Leeds by Cyril Ransome, father of Arthur, the author of Swallows and Amazons, but aged 18 and after a decade in exile he died there after contracting pleurisy.
Queen Victoria was saddened by his death and wrote in her diary the following:
“Very grieved and shocked to hear by telegram, that good Alemayehu had passed away this morning. It is too sad! All alone, in a strange country, without a single person or relative, belonging to him. His was no happy life, full of difficulties of every kind, and was so sensitive, thinking that people stared at him on account of his colour… Everyone is very sorry.”
She then arranged for him to be buried at Windsor Castle in the presence of Cyril Ransome and Captain Speedy, among others.
However, Buckingham Palace has this month released a statement to the BBC saying:
“It is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity.”
Therefore it seems that for now, the tragic young prince is destined to remain in exile.
