Major-General Sir John Clayton Cowell PC KCB (14 January 1832 – 29 August 1894) was a

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officer and later Master of the Queen's Household and

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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

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, 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

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, 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

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. 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