Prince George William of Hanover

Prince George William of Hanover (Georg Wilhelm Ernst August Friedrich Axel Prinz von Hannover; 25 March 1915 – 8 January 2006) was the second-eldest son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, the only daughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
His wife was a sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His children are thus first cousins of King Charles III.
==Life==
George William was christened on 10 May 1915 in Brunswick. The prince's godparents included Maria Christina of Austria, Prince Axel of Denmark, and Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland who held the infant prince over the baptismal font.
From 1930 through 1934, Prince George William attended the elite boarding school Schule Schloss Salem in Überlingen on Lake Constance. Schule Schloss Salem was co-founded by the prince's uncle, the last Chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Maximilian of Baden, and educator Kurt Hahn in 1920. 
With George William having completed his law studies at the University of Göttingen in 1948,Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006): Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, p. 362. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533927-7. he was approached by his brother-in-law, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, to take over the management of the Salem Castle School, which had since been closed due to the Second World War. A former student of the institution, the prince then went to Scotland with his wife to meet with Kurt Hahn, the founder of the school, and to visit Gordonstoun, the establishment that the latter founded when he had to flee Nazi Germany because of his Jewish origins.Vickers, Hugo (2000): Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece, p. 329. Londres: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-13686-7. The family remained in Salem until 1959, when George William gave up his post of school director.
The horse lover George William, who had belonged to the German eventing team before the Second World War, later built up the riding academy in Munich-Riem. For many years Prince George William was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and of the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (DOSB), the German NOC.Welfenprinz Georg Wilhelm gestorben, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 January 2006 
Prince George William of Hanover lived in Schliersee, near Munich, and died in Munich in 2006 aged 90. His wife, Sophie, sister of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, died in 2001.
==Marriage==
On 23 April 1946 in Salem, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Prince George William married his third cousin Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, and the widow of Prince Christoph of Hesse. After consultations with the Foreign Office, Home Office and King George VI's private secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, a ciphered telegram dated 18 April 1946 and crafted by Sir Albert Napier, permanent secretary to the Lord Chancellor, was transmitted from the British Foreign Office to the Foreign Adviser to the British Commander in Chief at Berlin:
They had three children: Welf (1947–1981), Georg (born 1949) and Friederike (born 1954).
==Ancestry==
George William was a descendant of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Albert, Prince Consort through their eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, the wife of Frederick III, German Emperor.
He was born a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.The London Gazette, issue 28850. 17 July 1914. p. 14/552. Declaration, 14 June 1914. [Children born to Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/prince_highness_docs.htm#1914]. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
==References==
Category:House of Hanover
Category:1915 births
Category:2006 deaths
Category:British princes
Category:Hanoverian princes
Category:Nobility from Braunschweig
Category:German International Olympic Committee members
Category:Sons of dukes