HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

William Patrick Stuart-Houston (born William Patrick Hitler; 12 March 1911 – 14 July 1987) was an English-born officer and militant which was the half-nephew of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. Born and raised in the
Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area ...
area of
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
to Adolf's half-brother Alois Hitler Jr. and his Irish wife Bridget Dowling, he later relocated to Germany to work for his half-uncle before emigrating to the United States, where he received American citizenship (in addition to his British citizenship) and ended up serving in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
against his half-uncle during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.


Biography


Early life

Stuart-Houston was born William Patrick Hitler in the
Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area ...
area of
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
in Great Britain on 12 March 1911, the son of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's half-brother Alois Hitler Jr. and his Irish wife Bridget Dowling. The couple met in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
when Alois was living there during 1909; they married in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
district in 1910 and relocated back to Liverpool. The family lived in a flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, which was later destroyed during the last German air raid of the
Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the English city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area of the country, outside Lo ...
on 10 January 1942. Dowling wrote a manuscript titled ''My Brother-in-Law Adolf'', in which she claimed that Adolf had lived in Liverpool with her from November 1912 to April 1913 in order to avoid conscription in Austria. The book is largely considered a work of fiction, as Adolf was actually residing in the
Meldemannstraße dormitory The men's dormitory on Meldemannstraße 27 in Brigittenau district, Vienna, Austria was a public dormitory for men (''Männerwohnheim'') from 1905 to 2003. It is a subject of public interest primarily because it was the residence of Adolf Hitler, ...
in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
at the time. In 1914, Alois left Bridget and their son for a gambling tour of Europe. He later returned to Germany. Unable to rejoin his family due to the outbreak of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he abandoned them, leaving William to be brought up by his mother. He remarried bigamously, but wrote to Bridget during the mid-1920s to ask her to send William to Germany's
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
for a visit. She finally agreed in 1929, when William was 18. By this time, Alois had another son named Heinz with his German wife. Heinz, in contrast to William, became a committed
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
, joined the ''
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
'', and died in
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
captivity in 1942.


Nazi Germany

In 1933, William returned to what had become
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in an attempt to benefit from his half-uncle's growing power. Adolf, who was now chancellor, found him a job at the ''Reichskreditbank'' in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, a job that he held for most of the 1930s. He later worked at the Opel automobile factory and as a car salesman. Dissatisfied with these jobs, he again asked his half-uncle for a better job, writing to him with blackmail threats of selling embarrassing stories about the family to the newspapers unless his "personal circumstances" improved. In 1938, Adolf asked William to relinquish his British citizenship in exchange for a high-ranking job. Suspecting a trap, William fled Nazi Germany and again tried to blackmail his uncle with threats. This time, William threatened to tell the press that Adolf's alleged paternal grandfather was actually a Jewish merchant. He returned to London, where he wrote the article "Why I Hate My Uncle" for '' Look'' magazine.Brown et al (2006)


Immigration to the United States

In January 1939, the newspaper magnate
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
brought William and his mother to the United States for a lecture tour. He and his mother were stranded when World War II began. After making a special request to
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, William was eventually approved to join the United States Navy in 1944; he relocated to the Sunnyside neighbourhood of
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York. William was drafted into the United States Navy during World War II as a pharmacist's mate (a designation later changed to
hospital corpsman A hospital corpsman (HM r corpsman is an enlisted medical specialist of the United States Navy, who may also serve in a U.S. Marine Corps unit. The corresponding rating within the United States Coast Guard is health services technician (HS ...
) until he was discharged in 1947. On reporting for duty, the induction officer asked his name. He replied, "Hitler." Thinking he was joking, the officer replied, "Glad to see you, Hitler. My name's
Hess Hess or Heß may refer to: * Hess (surname), also ''Heß'' in German, people with the surname Hess * Hess, Oklahoma, a community in the United States * Hess Educational Organization, the largest private provider of English instruction in the Rep ...
." William was wounded in action during the war and awarded the
Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...
.


Later life

After being discharged from the Navy, William changed his surname to "Stuart-Houston". In 1947, he married Phyllis Jean-Jacques, who had been born in Germany in the mid-1920s.Infobitte.de
After their relationship began, William and Phyllis, along with Bridget, tried to live a life of anonymity in the United States. They moved to Patchogue, New York, where William used his medical training to establish a business that analyzed blood samples for hospitals. His laboratory, which he called Brookhaven Laboratories (no relation to
Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...
), was located in his home, a two-story clapboard house at 71 Silver Street. Stuart-Houston and his wife had four sons: Alexander Adolf (born 1949), Louis (born 1951), Howard Ronald (1957–1989), and Brian William (born 1965). None of his sons had children of their own. In his 2001 book ''The Last of the Hitlers'', journalist David Gardner speculated that the four brothers had made a verbal pact not to sire children This claim was explicitly denied by eldest son Alexander, stating that before his death Howard Ronald had been engaged and intending to have children, while another brother had been engaged once, but the relationship had been destroyed by the family notoriety. His third son, Howard Ronald Stuart-Houston, worked as a Special Agent with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and died in a car accident on September 14, 1989. Stuart-Houston died in Patchogue on 14 July 1987. His remains were buried next to his mother's at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in
Coram, New York Coram is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the CDP population was 39,113. History Coram is the oldest settlement in the ...
. His widow, Phyllis, died in 2004.


In the media

The family's story and Bridget's memoirs were first published by Michael Unger in the ''
Liverpool Daily Post The ''Liverpool Post'' was a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The newspaper and its website ceased publication on 19 December 2013. Until 13 January 2012 it was a daily morning newspaper, with the ti ...
'' in 1973. Unger also edited Bridget Dowling's memoirs, which were first published as ''The Memoirs of Bridget Hitler'' in 1979; a completely updated version, titled ''The Hitlers of Liverpool'', was published in 2011. Beryl Bainbridge's 1978 novel '' Young Adolf'' depicts the alleged 1912–13 visit to his Liverpool relatives by a 23-year-old
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. Bainbridge adapted the story into a play as ''The Journal of Bridget Hitler'' with director
Philip Saville Philip Saville (28 October 1927 – 22 December 2016) was a British director, screenwriter and former actor whose career lasted half a century. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website described Saville as "one of Britain's most prolifi ...
, which was broadcast as a ''Playhouse'' ( BBC 2) in 1981.
Grant Morrison Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for th ...
and
Steve Yeowell Steve Yeowell () is a British comics artist, well known for his work on the long-running science fiction and fantasy weekly comic '' 2000 AD''. Biography Having trained in 3D design (specialising in silversmithing and jewellery), Yeowell bega ...
's 1989
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
'' The New Adventures of Hitler'' is likewise based on the alleged Liverpool visit. In October 2005,
The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
broadcast a one-hour documentary titled ''Hitler's Family'', in which William Patrick Hitler is described along with other relatives of Adolf Hitler. Netflix aired a documentary titled ''The Pact: Le serment des Hitler'' (2014), directed by Emmanuel Amara, which was billed as a retracing of the life of Hitler, and an exploration of what became of the Hitler family line. William Patrick Hitler was portrayed in the sketch "Willy Hitler Fights the Germans" in the 19 June 2018 episode of the American
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
television series ''Drunk History'', which aired as the eighth episode of that show's fifth season.


See also

*
Hitler family The Hitler family comprises the relatives and ancestors of Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945), an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was the dictator of Germany, holding the title Chancellor of ...


References

* Brown, Jonathan and Oliver Duff
"The black sheep of the family? The rise and fall of Hitler's scouse nephew"
in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 17 August 2006 * Gardner, David. ''The Last of the Hitlers'', BMM, 2001, * Green, Jesse.
The Search for the Long Island Hitlers
', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 9 April 2006 * Halmburger, Oliver, Timothy W. Ryback & Florian M. Beierl: ''Hitler's Family – In the Shadow of the Dictator'', Loopfilm / ZDF Enterprises, 2006. * * McCarthy, Tony
"Hitler: His Irish Relatives"
''Irish Roots Magazine''; no. 1, First Quarter 1992 (Retrieved: 10 March 2016) * Royden, M.W
"Your Story: Adolf Hitler – did he visit Liverpool during 1912–13?"
BBC Legacies; Liverpool, February 2004 * Toland, John. ''Adolf Hitler'', * Vermeeren, Marc. "De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889–1907 en zijn familie en voorouders";
Soesterberg Soesterberg is a town in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Soest, and lies about 5 km northeast of Zeist, on the road between Amersfoort and Utrecht. It was the location of Soesterberg Air Base History The ...
, 2007; Aspekt B.V. publishers; (in
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
)


External links


Getting to know the Hitlers
from ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
''
Author talks about 'the Last of the Hitlers'
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
interview.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre – Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
* Kilgannon, Corey

''The New York Times'', 24 April 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart-Houston, William Patrick 1911 births 1987 deaths People from Toxteth United States Navy personnel of World War II English emigrants to the United States English people of Austrian descent English people of Irish descent Hitler family People from Patchogue, New York United States Navy sailors People from Coram, New York People from Sunnyside, Queens Military personnel from New York City