Major-General Sir John Clayton Cowell
PC KCB (14 January 1832 – 29 August 1894) was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer and later
Master of the Queen's Household and
lieutenant-governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a " second-in-com ...
of
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original c ...
.
Early life
Clayton was born at Bean, near
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
, in 1832 the son of John Clayton Cowell and Frances Ann Hester, daughter of the Rev. Richard Brickenden. He was educated at the
Royal Military Academy at
Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...
. In 1850 he joined the Royal Engineers, he served with the
Baltic fleet and at
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
, where he was ''
aide-de-camp'' to General Sir
Harry Jones and where he wounded himself on 10 August 1854 by accidentally discharging a
revolver he had borrowed from
Bartholomew Sulivan. He was sent to recuperate on the
hospital ship
A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. I ...
''Belleisle''.
Royal household
Clayton returned to England and from 1856 to 1866 he became governor to the young
Prince Alfred, who in 1866 became the Duke of Edinburgh. Clayton performed the same role for a year with
Prince Leopold until Leopold became 21. For his duties with the royal princes he was an appointed a
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...
.
In 1866 Clayton was appointed as
Master of the Queen's Household and he retired from the Army in 1879 with the honorary rank of major-general. In 1892 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Windsor Castle. He was with the Queen's permission responsible for having electric lights installed at Windor Castle.
The town of
Cowell, South Australia
Cowell is a coastal town on Franklin Harbor on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, in South Australia on the Lincoln Highway 111 km south of the major town of Whyalla. It is 493 km by road from Adelaide.
Franklin Harbor is a n ...
was named in his honour.
Family life
He married Georgiana Elizabeth Pulleine in 1868, the only child of James Pulleine of
Clifton Castle at
Clifton-on-Yore
Clifton-on-Yore is a civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish was estimated at 40 in 2010. The population remained less than 100 as taken at the 2011 Census. Details were included in th ...
, Yorkshire, which Georgiana inherited. They had two sons and two daughters.
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
was godmother to their eldest son, Albert Victor John (born 12 June 1869).
He died in 1894 at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight due to heart failure.
His son Albert succeeded to the Clifton Castle estate.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowell, John Clayton
1832 births
1894 deaths
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Masters of the Household
Royal Engineers officers
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
British Army personnel of the Crimean War
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
People from Blean