Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse
Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse was the first child of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. He was a nephew of Empress Alexandra and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.
Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, reigning from 1892 until 1918.
Photograph by Jacob Hilsdorf, 1905
Ernest in 1879 with his grandmother Queen Victoria and sisters Victoria, Elizabeth, Irene and Alix two months after the deaths of their mother and youngest sister. All are wearing mourning clothes.
Ernest was still devastated by the memory of his daughter's death thirty years later. "My little Elisabeth," he wrote in his memoirs, "was the sunshine of my life."
Ernest Louis in 1917, as officer during the First World War.