Prince John of the United Kingdom

Prince John (John Charles Francis; 12 July 1905 – 18 January 1919) was the fifth son and youngest of the six children of King George V and Queen Mary.

At the time of his birth, his father was heir apparent to John's grandfather Edward VII.

John was born at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate on 12 July 1905, at 3:05 am, during the reign of his paternal grandfather, King Edward VII.

He was the youngest child and fifth son of George, Prince of Wales, and Mary, Princess of Wales.

He was named John despite that name's unlucky associations for the royal family, but was informally known as "Johnnie".

At the time of his birth, he was sixth in the line of succession to the throne, behind his father and four older brothers.

As a grandchild of the reigning British monarch in the male line, and a son of the Prince of Wales, he was formally styled His Royal Highness Prince John of Wales from birth.

John was christened on 3 August 1905 in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene at Sandringham, with the Reverend Canon John Neale Dalton officiating.

His godparents were King Carlos I of Portugal; John's uncles Prince Carl of Denmark and Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife; his great-granduncle Prince Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg; and three of his first cousins once removed, the Duke and Duchess of Sparta and Princess Alexander of Teck.

John's father stood proxy for King Carlos, Prince Carl, Prince Johann and the Duke of Fife, while John's aunt Princess Victoria stood proxy for the Duchess of Sparta and Princess Alexander.

Much of John's early life was spent at Sandringham with his siblings—Prince Edward (known as David to the royal family), Prince Albert, Princess Mary, Prince Henry and Prince George—under the care of their nanny Charlotte "Lala" Bill.

Though a strict disciplinarian, John's father was affectionate toward his children; John's mother was close to her children and encouraged them to confide in her.

In 1909, it was discovered that John had epilepsy.

In 1909, John's grandaunt, the Dowager Empress of Russia, wrote to her son: "George's children are very nice... The little ones, George and Johnny are both charming and very amusing".

John's aunt Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, described him as "very quaint and one evening when Uncle George returned from stalking he bent over Aunt May and kissed her, and they heard Johnny soliloquize, 'She kissed Papa, ugly old man! George V once told U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt that "all [his] children [were] obedient, except John"—apparently because he alone, among the king's children, escaped punishment from their father.

Though a "large and handsome" baby, John had become "winsome" and "painfully slow" by his fourth birthday.

That same year, he had his first epileptic seizure and showed signs of a disability, probably autism or learning disabilities.

In 1910, John's father succeeded to the throne upon Edward VII's death, and John became fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.

When his father became king, John did not attend his parents' coronation on 22 June 1911, as this was considered too risky for his health; nonetheless, cynics said that the family feared their reputation would be damaged by any incident involving him.

Although John was deemed not "presentable to the outside world," the king still showed interest in him, offering him "kindness and affection".

During his time at Sandringham, John exhibited some repetitive behaviours as well as regular misbehaviours and insubordination: "he simply didn't understand he needed to [behave]."

Nonetheless, there was hope his seizures might lessen with time.

In 1912, Prince George, John's closest sibling, began St Peter's Court Preparatory School at Broadstairs.

The next summer, The Times reported that John would not attend Broadstairs the next term, and that his parents had not decided whether to send him to school at all.

After the outbreak of World War I, he rarely saw his parents, who were often away on official duties, or his siblings, who were either at boarding school or in the military.

He slowly disappeared from the public eye and no official portraits of him were commissioned after 1913.

In 1916, as his condition deteriorated, he was sent to live at Sandringham House and kept away from the public eye.

There, he was cared for by his governess, Charlotte "Lala" Bill, and befriended local children whom his mother had gathered to be his playmates.

In 1916, as his seizures became more frequent and severe, John was sent to live at Wood Farm, with Lala Bill in charge of his care.

He maintained an interest in the world around him and was capable of coherent thought and expression, but with his lack of educational progress, the last of his tutors was dismissed and his formal education ended.

Physicians warned that it was unlikely that he would reach adulthood.

At Wood Farm, John became "a satellite with his own little household on an outlying farm on the Sandringham estate... Guests at Balmoral remember him during the Great War as tall and muscular, but always a distant figure glimpsed from afar in the woods, escorted by his own retainers."

His grandmother Queen Alexandra maintained a garden at Sandringham House especially for him, and this became "one of the great pleasures of [Prince John]'s life."

After the summer of 1916, John was rarely seen outside the Sandringham Estate and passed solely into Lala Bill's care.

After Queen Alexandra wrote that John "is very proud of his house but is longing for a companion", Queen Mary broke from royal practice by having local children brought in to be playmates for him.

One of these was Winifred Thomas, a young girl from Halifax who had been sent to live with her aunt and uncle (who had charge of the royal stables at Sandringham) in hopes her asthma would improve.

He died at Sandringham in 1919 after a severe seizure, and was buried at nearby St Mary Magdalene Church.

His illness was disclosed to the wider public only after his death.

John's seclusion was subsequently brought forward as evidence of the royal family's inhumanity.

But contrary to the belief that he was hidden from the public from an early age, for most of his life John was a fully-fledged member of the family, appearing frequently in public until after his eleventh birthday, when his condition became severe.