The Earl of Athlone, a member of the British Royal family, served as Canada's governor general from 1940 to 1946.
His full name was Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge, and he was the son of Princess Mary and the Duke of Cambridge.
Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, the Earl of Athlone was a career soldier who served in the Boer War and World War I. He was first offered the post of Governor General of Canada in 1914, but declined to accept when the war broke out. In 1923 he became Governor General of South Africa, and later served as Governor and Constable at Windsor Castle.
He was reappointed as Governor General of Canada in 1940 and was closely involved with the war effort. In 1940 he visited President Roosevelt at Hyde Park (yes, that's on the Hudson) and hosted two wartime Churchill-Roosevelt conferences at La Citadelle in Quebec. Many other leaders came and went during his wartime tenure.
The Earl of Athlone was married to Princess Alice, one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters, and the Earl and Countess attended a state dinner at the White House in 1945, just a few days before Roosevelt died of a stroke.
After returning to England in 1946, the Earl of Athlone lived another 11 years. He died in London in 1957.
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