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Prince John – ‘the lost prince’
In 1905, King George V and Queen Mary’s youngest child, Prince John, was born. However, in comparison to other members of the British royal family, little is known about John because he was essentially hidden away for much of his short life. And the reason? Because he had epilepsy.
Prince John was born on July 12, 1905, the youngest of six children. Records, limited as they are, indicate that he developed epilepsy at the age of four. He was said to have severe epilepsy, but it is also thought that he had some other form of neurological disorder, such as autism.
John was a happy child but perhaps due to his health, was often seen as odd and was therefore potentially embarrassing for the royal family. In 1916, while still just a child, he was sent to live in a farm near Sandringham, called Wood Farm, where he was cared for by his devoted nanny, known as Lala.
By all accounts, it appears that John was well looked after at Wood Farm and while it may have seemed cruel to simply hide him away from the public’s view, had he been born to an ordinary family, his fate would probably have been worse. As it was, the evidence suggests that he remained a happy child while there.
To the public, it appeared as though John had simply never existed – he was the lost prince. He was never mentioned in communications and he was eventually excluded from family photographs, most notably from the family photo taken in July 1918 to mark his parents’ silver wedding anniversary.
Prince John died in January 1919, aged just 13 and a half. His death was almost certainly as a result of SUDEP (sudden expected death in epilepsy).
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