PRINCE ALAMAYOU TEWODROS of Ethiopia 1861 - 1879

In the nave of the chapel of St Georges at Windsor Castle, there is a brass tablet, erected by the Queen Victoria, to the memory of Prince Alamayou, the son of Emperor Tewodros of Abyssinia. At the bottom of the tablet is a quotation, "I was a stranger and you took me in"

The story behind the orphan Prince was brought from his own destroyed home to this country, and became the centre of controversy that involved the Crown, the Courts and the Government. All those involved were peoples of the highest integrity and principles, yet some allowed these to obscure the essentially human side of their task. The story is now told for the first time from the original documents. I wish to express my grateful thanks to Her Majesty for her gracious permission to quote from the diary of H.M. Queen Victoria, from letters from members of H.M household and from other papers among the Royal Archives at Windsor.

Emperor Tewodros of Abyssinia, as modern Ethiopia was usually known at that time, was born about 1818, the son of a minor chief, who was reputed to be of the Queen of Shebas royal line. His original name was Kassa, and his widowed mother was left so poor that she was obliged to sell kosso, a specific against tapeworm, in the streets of Gondor. Kassa was brought up in a monastery on Lake Tsana and proved an apt and intelligent pupil.

The country was engaged in civil war and Kassa played a leading part in this war and was so successful that by 1855 he was crowned King, taking name of Tewodros, believing that he was destined to fulfil a legend that a just and righteous king of that name would one day wipe out Islam, conquer Jerusalem and occupy the throne of Solomon. Theodore was greatly influenced during his rise to power by two English friends, John Bell and Walter Chichele Plowden of whom the latter persuaded Lord Palmerston to conclude a treaty of trade in 1849 with the Ras of Gondor;

On his fall in 1854 Plowden transferred his allegiance to Emperor Tewodros, who had deposed the last titular Emperor, John 111, and had transferred the capital from Gondor to Magdala, Plowden occupied a semi-official diplomatic position in the country and on his death in 1860 had a serious effect on Theodore character:

Plowden had already noted that the worst points in his character are his violent anger at times and his unyielding pride as regards his kingly and divine rights, these qualities now became more marked. After Cameron’s arrival the king wrote to Queen Victoria suggesting the establishment of an Abyssinian Embassy in both, London and Paris. This letter was unfortunately, filed away in the Foreign Office, possibly because no interpreter who could read Amharic was available and when dispatches from England arrived in Abyssinia in 1864;

Emperor Tewodros was told that no reply had been received to his letter. He took this as a gross personal insult to himself and to his country and threw Cameron and several other English persons into prison. The British government sent a Levantine, Hormuzd Rassam, to try to obtain the release of the prisoners and in 1866 Emperor Tewodros on a sudden whim, threw him and sixty other Europeans into prison in Magdala and had them chained in iron anklets and fetters. To rescue these prisoners the British Government equipped an expedition, under the command of Sir Robert Napier to set forth from India, with elephants, camels, mules and oxen but, owing to the difficult nature of the country, this expedition took nearly a year to reach Magdala from the coast, a distance of 325 miles.

Napiers inflicted a heavy defeat on the Abyssinian troops at Arogee
on April 10th 1868 and captured Magdala three days later, on Easter Monday, to find that Emperor Tewodros had committed suicide.
The first mention of Prince Alamayou, who had been born in 1861 to Terunish, the second wife of the Ras of Tigre and King Tewodros second wife, is to be found in a report sent by Rassam to General Merewether, a senior officer on Napier’s staff, on April 1, 1868: it would seem that the prisoner’s conditions had improved by then for Rassams writes ‘the king then introduced me to Daya Alamayou (the prince imperial and the real heir to the throne) and told him to escort us back to our house. Prince Alamayou is a nice youth about eight years of age.

After his fathers suicide, Napier, who had first obtained the agreement of the boys mother, entrusted the boy to the care of Captain J. C. Speedy, a member of his staff who had known Emperor Tewodros and who spoke Amharic. Little is known of Speedy’s life before this war, but he had been sent from Australia to join Napiers; expedition. In his dispatches Napiers refers, with appreciation, to speedy’s ‘familiar knowledge of the Amharic language and character of the Abyssinians.

It was decided that the boy should return to England, With Captain Speedy. It had been one of the King Tewodros’s wishes that he should visit this country, and shortly after he left to the coast with Alamayou and his mother, Queen Terunish, the boys tutor, Alaca Zarat, and a eunuch, Gabr Medin.
On the way to the coast the queen died, probably from tuberculosis, and, when dying, she had asked Speedy if he would be a father to her boy, which speedy promised that he would be.
On June 11. 1868, Speedy and his party embarked on HMS Feroze, to sail to England. The boy shared the same cabin as his tutor but spent most of the days with Speedy, to whom he had become very attached. While still at sea at about 10 oclock in the evening of June 15th, Speedy heard an agonised scream, which was accompanied by a cry for me in Amharic, and of which I recognise proceeding from Alamayou.

While running to the boy I was met by a messenger from Lord Napier requesting me to come as quickly as possible. I found Alamayou in the arms of Lord Napier suffering from the greatest agitation…after quieting with some difficulty hid distress, the only solution the boy would give as to the cause of his distress was that Alaca Zarat had the evil eye.

The boy refused to return to his tutor, and on the next morning, Napier asked Speedy to take sole charge of Alamayou, and when the boat arrived at Suez, Napier dismissed both the tutor and the eunuch, sending them both back to Mombassa. Meanwhile, as Speedy later recorded.

the distressing alarm that seized him rendered him so timid that for the following three months no persuasion could induce him to sleep out of my arms, and so great was his terror that if he happened to wake and find me asleep although still in my arms, he would awake me and earnestly beg me to remain awake until he should fall asleep; and it is only by continued care and tenderness that he is gradually losing his timidity.

He added that up to that time he had never known the boy to express any superstitious fears, and the unfortunate tutor was able to confirm this. Some months later Queen Victoria recorded in her diary that Captain Speedy had told her;

that the poor child has a recollection of the horrid massacre of captives by his father’s orders and having heard their shrieks.’
Arriving in England, Speedy took the boy to his home at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, where he began to teach him English. Alamayou and Speedy were summoned to Osborne to meet Queen Victoria, who had been interested in him before his arrival in England, and on July 11th, very shortly after his arrival, wrote that he must on no account be removed from the kind judicious and almost maternal care of Captain Speedy.

The poor child cannot bear him for a moment out of his sight, requiring him to sleep in his bed; Captain Speedy is very gentle in his Christianity often the Queen must say not to be found in clergymen who are told to enforce their own particular creed. The child is extremely if the poor little helpless orphan were removed from the one person to whom he seems to sling most tenderly.

On July 17th Speedy brought the boy again to Osborne, ‘he was so nice and gentle
He took a peach which I gave to him and he seemed to enjoy eating it very much.
On the next day, July 18th, Mrs. Tennyson notes in her dairy. ‘Poor little Alamayou, king Tewodros of Abssinias son, came with Captain Speedy,’ and on July 25th the Queen notes;
‘just after luncheon saw the little Alamayou in his picturesque Abyssinian dress, gave the dear little boy a watch and chain.
During the summer the Queen saw Speedy and Alamayou several times and she wrote that she took a great interest in him and would be pleased to see him frequently but realised that the responsibility for his education must rest with the Government.

Captain Speedy, however, served the Indian army and on October 10th of the same year he wrote to the Under Secretary for India; ‘the boy is in very good health which may be owing to the enjoyment of sea air; as well as of sea bathing. I have also occupied myself in teaching him to swim, he having lost his repugnance to salt water. His disposition is excellent and his former shyness is replaced by a most winning manner. He is remarkably intelligent for his age and makes quick progress in English.
Later in the year Speedy married a Miss Cottam, whose parents lived at Afton, near Freshwater, and the Queen notes, on December 26th; just before luncheon we saw little Alamayou looking very well and grown. Captain Speedy being on his wedding tour, the boy was brought by Mrs. Cottam, Mrs. Speedys mother.’

On February 15th, 1869, a further visit was paid by Alamayou and Speedy to Osborne

Meantime, there had been discussions on Alamayous future, and the Secretary for India, Sir Stafford Northcote wrote that he had decided that the boy should remain under the care of Captain Speedy, in the Isle of Wight, for at least a year, recognising the boys devotion to him, that he spoke his language and further, that this was carrying out the wish of his dying mother. The Treasury agreed to pay Captain Speedy £300 a year as guardian and to allow him a further £400 a year for maintenance.

Early in 1869 Speedy was appointed to the post of District Commissioner of Police at Seetapoor, in Oudh. He left for his post with his wife and Alamayou on July 4th of that year with an agreement with the Government that he should continue his guardianship of Alamayou for ‘the period of two years from August 1st next at the rate of £700 a year. ‘He reported that he had made arrangements for Alamayou’s education and had been lucky to secure the services of Baboo Ramchander Bhose, a most intelligent well educated man a Christian as his instructor.

He also reported that Alamayou’s health was good and his disposition amiable.
he is passionately fond of all out-of-door sports and riding, but with regards to any mental occupation most lethargic...I have but one fault to notice, that is an occasional tendency to untruthfulness.
This had only developed since his arrival in India, but that by appealing to his bravery and better feelings, I have never failed to obtain the truth from him. But in London, Robert Lowe, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Liberal Government, was giving his attention to Alamayou future. He wrote in a memorandum dated 5th June 1870 that,

I should think the kindest thing for him would be to let his education take a military turn and let him be commissioned among the European officers of some of the Irregular Horse. This is a Royal calling and, as he will be sort of Mamluk away from home, our Government will always be the best friend he has; his loyalty will be pretty well assured.

Speedy too was thinking of the future, and he wrote in February 1871 that Alamayou will be ten years old in the following April and that he now stands 4ft. 6in. in heights, and he always Shows great courage in games, while his fondness for animals is striking.

Alamayou is growing a fine lad but I cannot get him to care for his books. It is ludicrous his utter dislike for anything in that time, but he is otherwise the best boy in the Universe, the child has somewhat entwined himself round our hearts, and as we have no family it seems as if providence has given him to us. India is bad for Alamayou on account of there being no schools, at least none to which I would have sent Alamayou and yet have been visiting distance,

But the time was at hand when fate, in the person of the British Government, was to take a decision which was to affect Alamayou and his guardians profoundly. Early in 1871 Speedy was transferred from his post at Seetapore to that of a colonial magistrate in Penang. The British authorities thereupon decided that Alamayou should return to England forthwith, and that no arrangements for his education outside of England could be considered. Anson, who was the Governor at Singapore, reported to Lord Kimberley that he had seen Captain Speedy and Alamayou frequently together and have had the latter spending the days at Government House on several occasions and in justice to Captain Speedy, I must say that he shows the greatest affection for his charge which is fully returned by him.

Were Captain Speedy his father he could not have done more for him in every way, and I consider that under the circumstances Captain Speedy is deserving of every considerations. Captain Speedy being a married man without any children he allowed Alamayou to take the place of a son and I understand that Mrs Speedy who is at present in England, takes an equal interest in him.

The Speedys, too, realised that the time had come when they would have to relinquished the guardianship of Alamayou under the terms of the 1869 agreement, and Mrs Speedy, already in England, wrote to Sir John Cowell, Master of the Queen’s Household, that she cannot contemplate the idea of being parted from the boy without the heaviest sorrow; the idea (or knowledge) of what he will suffer any where else is too sad to dwell upon and only those who have watched and loved him in his daily life can know this. If it were for Alamayous good to be taken away we would of course say nothing but this is an extremely doubtful matter.

She had been looking for a tutor to go to Penang, and had almost arranged for a Mr. Digby, and nephew of Lord Leicester, who had just taken his degree at Oxford, to go out there and knew of nothing which would prevent

him sailing very shortly. Speedy himself wrote to Lingen, an official of the Treasury to tell him that he had arranged for a tutor to come out for a year at the end of which time he would send Alamayou home to go to a preparatory school where he would have had the advantage of companionship of boys of his own age.

Speedy later on suggested that he should be given employment in England so that he could retain his guardianship of Alamayou. The Duke of Argyll, Secretary for India, wrote to Sir Thomas Biddulph, keeper of the Privy Purse, on November 11th, 1871, that he had told Gladstone that he would support the suggestion of leaving Alamayou with Speedy, but Robert Lowe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, did not agree, and on November 6th wrote to Gladstone that, the case had to be decided on general principle. We are in loco parentis, and ought to look after his welfare as if he were our own child.

What parents would voluntarily bring up a child in Indian cantonments where he is sure to become an accomplished liar, and would probably be contaminated with those vices which arrest the physical and mental development of boys. I am sorry he has been left in India so long, but if he is to stay any longer I see no good in keeping him here. I attach no importance to what Captain and Mrs Speedy say, for they have a large pecuniary interest in keeping him. I have arranged with Mr. Jex-Blake, the head of Cheltenham College, to take him into his own house. He has a large family, so the boy will not be solitary, it is possible that a day may come when the boy may have some part to play in Abyssinia and we should be inexcusable if we neglected even the remote chance of importing there some faint sprinkling of European cultures.

PART TWO

Lowe, a dominating man, brusque and sarcastic, expressed his own private feeling in the matter when he wrote a minute on December 18th. ‘I am tired of this cant, one would think that education considered in coddling and petting instead of making men. Special tutors mean general ignorance, if he is truthful there is no time to be lost for he will not be so long. These people think that a boy’s character is formed by those in whose house he lives and not by other boys and the general moral tone in the community.’

When Queen Victoria heard of the proposal that Alamayou should be separated from Speedys she was not at all satisfied. She wrote that she was ‘perfectly furious at Mr. Lowe’s conduct and she would be quite ready to pay the £400 herself and have the boy brought and would be happy to do so rather than see such treatment.

Sir Thomas Biddulph’s letter is excellent but the Queen would wish Sir Thomas would add two things; one that the medical men should well consider whether the boy would not suffer considering his sensitive temperament from being taken away from the only friend he has, secondly that Sir W. Jenner should be one of the doctor s consulted.’ At this stage it is necessary to go back in the story for a few months in order fully t understand what has been going on. When Lowe heard that Speedy was to be transferred from India to Penang he wrote on July 12th 1871, that,
‘The fate of Alamayou in life ought to depend on some fixed principle, and not on blind chance. Yet how comes he to be in India and now in the Colony of Penang: simple because he fell into the hands of an officer whose fate has blown him to these places.

I cannot justify fully the expenditure of £700 a year for an education in an Oriental Country I think we should insist on having our money spent in the manner most for his benefits. I therefore propose to terminate the present arrangement and to pay only what is necessary to bring the boy to England and to place him in proper hands.’

The arrangement with Speedy for the care of prince Alamayou was due to end on August 1st, 1871, and the Treasury proposed to bring him back to England where, there Lordship would be prepared with suitable arrangements for his education and maintenance. One of the Treasury officials, R. W. W. Lingen, was already in touch with a clergyman, the Reverend Jex-Blake, who kept a large private school, called the College, at Cheltenham to ask whether Alamayou could be boarded with him. Jex-Blake wrote on October 2nd that he was willing to take care of the boy.

‘probably he wants most of all at first some kindly and sensible family life with other children; and probably he could not do much better than to come and stay with us here for a month or two, being treated as a friend’s child who has to do his lessons and ride his pony and do as he is told.’

Lingen minuted the Chancellor on the following day: ‘I think it might be undesirable (if you decide on Cheltenham) for Jex-Blake to take the boy into his own family. Even on trail- until he has seen what he is like – especially whether he may not have picked up bad ways in India. Jex-Blake has several young children (girls) of his own.’

Jex-blake wrote to accept the responsibility of Alamayou’s education: understandably, he wished he had been younger, but he expected to become interested in him, and he hoped that ‘veracity may yet be assured.’ Het was to receive £700 a year for his work, and felt that the title Prince ‘should not be de rigueur in family life.’

With these not very encouraging preliminaries the scene was now seT for Alamayou’s return to England. Accompanied by Speedy, he arrived at Southampton on December 30th, and left at once for Mrs. Cottam’s house at Freshwater.
Speedy did not receive a letter from Lingen, which should have been waiting for him on arrival, instructing him to hand over Alamayou to Jex-Blake, at Brighton, immediately on landing. Instead, he wrote to Lingen on January 1st, from the Langham Hotel, making a final plea, for a reconsideration of the plans for Alamayou’s education, and ends his letter ‘but I cannot refrain from expressing my regret and surprise, that I who since the close of the Abyssinian campaign have stood in ‘loco parentis’ to the boy should not have been consulted regarding the future of one in whom I am deeply interested; and with whose particular temperament both physical and mental, no one can be so intimately acquainted as myself. I think it is my duty to state that in my opinion the boy is totally unfitted for a large public school.
I earnestly solicit the favour of a personal interview before anything is definitely settled.’

On receipt of this letter Lingen sent one of his officials to call on Speedy at the Langham Hotel, but found that he had already left for Windsor. Here he probably saw the sympathetic Thomas Biddulph who wrote to Lowe in January. ‘Considering the interest the Queen has taken in the boy, and that Captain Speedy was brought over at the Queens’s desire to be with him, Her Majesty expected that at least a report of his arrival should have been made to her, and some explanation made before he was ordered off to Mr. Jex-Blake.
One point to which the Queen, attaches great importance was that a medical examination of him should be made in order to decide whether England was a fit residence for him.

In this purpose the Queen desires that Sir W. Jenner should see him and report on his health and also upon his nervous temperament…..I am not aware where the boy is at the moment, as I know nothing except that Captain Speedy did not deliver him to Mr. Jex-Blake on the day named which was I think the fourth day after arrival in England.’ To this letter Lowe replied, indignantly, that Speedy was only brought over to take care of the boy on the voyage and that he, Lowe, had made all arrangements about the ‘disposal’ of the boy; Speedy had been instructed by the Treasury,
‘to take Alamayou to Brighton on Wednesday last and to deliver him to the Reverend T.D. Blake, 13 Sussex Square, Brighton. That order Captain Speedy disobeyed.’

This was followed by a letter to Speedy, written on Lowe’s instructions, saying that as long as he did not comply with their instructions to him, My Lords must decline to enter any correspondence with him.

Ponsonby, the Queen’s private secretary, followed this up by a telegram to Speedy telling him to take Alamayou to see Jex-Blake in Brighton, but not to hand him over until further notice. On January 12th Speedy received another telegram telling him to bring Alamayou to Windsor on the following Wednesday, where the Queen wished to see them both.
Lowe subsequently wrote to Biddulph to tell him that Speedy with Alamayou were at the Albion Hotel, Brighton, where they could be seen by Jex-Blake, Lowe had finally given way and agreed that Alamayou should remain with Speedy until it was decided that the place chosen for him. Cheltenham, was suitable. Ponsonby wrote rather sadly, ‘had Mr. Lowe suggested that the first time there need have been no difficulty’.

On January 18th Speedy and Alamayou were again at Osborne and on the same day Biddulph wrote to Lowe to ask him to arrange for an appointment for Alamayou to be seen by Sir William Jenner and Dr. Quain; and on January 23rd this consultation took place in Downing Street, in the presence of Captain Speedy, Jenner reported that, while it would have been better had Alamayou remained a further two years in a warmer climate, yet he might reside in the South of England with very small risk, provided he had a comfortable home. Both he and Dr. Quain were opposed to the idea of sending the boy to a public or private boarding school and recommended placing him with a tutor who might have two or three pupils and that Captain Speedy should stand in loco parentis and receive the boy at holiday time. The Queen firmly supported this plan, and Biddulph wrote to Gladstone that she ‘entirely disagrees in the proposal to place Alamayou with Mr. Blake who I believe is head of a school at Cheltenham.’

When Gladstone next visited the Queen at Osborne Alamayou’s education was discussed and Biddulph was asked to send a copy of Jenner’s report to Lowe, who replied in an angry mood that the doctor’s advice was ‘that his nervous temperament unfits him for going to school at present as he would in their opinion be unable to endure the worry which his foreign appearance would crate. In this way they were contradicted by Speedy himself who says that the boy is never so happy as when playing and wrestling with other boys. My own not very definite experience in my own case makes me very much regret the decision. But it has been given and there is nothing for it but to obey….. (Alamayou) has learnt as yet next to nothing and is really unfit for any school beyond a primary one for poor people’s children.

Biddulph then wrote to Lowe, on February 7th, hoping that he would now consult the Queen’s wishes about Alamayou and on the same day wrote to Ponsonby that Alamayou and Speedy had had lunched with him at Windsor Castle and stayed until nearly 5 o’clock. Speedy seemed very reasonable in all he said, and Ponsonby was much struck with Alamayou’s behaviour. This sensible arrangement was at once upset by the Colonial Office who wrote to Lowe, on February 8th that Captain Speedy’s presence was urgently required in the Colony and that they could not allow him a year’s leave now as he had only so recently been appointed.
Speedys reluctantly gave up the struggle and said that perhaps Alamayou would be all right in England now, for he seems ‘much more manly and self reliant lately.’

Lowe then suggested to Ponsonby that the Queen might receive Jex-Blake and explain to him more fully her views on Alamayou’s education: Ponsonby wrote to Biddulph in horror. ‘I hesitate to show Rivers Wilson’s letter to the Queen. (He was the Treasury Official who had made this suggestion.) She will be in a terrible state. She hates the name of Jex-Blake and it is merely her anxiety to give in some where that makes her consent to Alamayou going there. But she insists he ought to have another home, someone he can appeal to when he wants to get away from Mrs. Jex-Blake and the nine Miss Jex-Blakes and the governesses.’ so that a proposal was dropped.

On February 29th Jex-Blake wrote to Lingen. ‘I am very glad Her Majesty takes so warm an interest in Alamayou, and my wish is that he should look on me as guardian rather than instructor; should find my house his English home; and he amongst us after the first days of strangers have passed away…..as one of my own children. I have no wish to stop communication with old friends, but it would not be in my judgement to accept the great responsibility of guardianship unless quite free in the discharge of my duty.’

On March 4th Speedy handed over his charge to Jex-Blake, who received him with him with much kindness and invited him to stay to dinner, but Alamayou entreated to be allowed to spend his last evening with Captain Speedy at his hotel, Jex-Blake positively refused. Before leaving Speedy asked whether, if Mrs. Speedy were to remain in England for a while, she would be allowed to visit Alamayou; Jex-Blake said that he could not answer hypothetical questions, and on being pressed further said that he could not say whether she would be allowed to visit Alamayou or not.

Speedy reported this unsatisfactory conversation to Ponsonby, who in turn told the Queen; as a result Lowe wrote to Biddulph that Jex-Balke had thought better of the matter and would do all that the Queen wishes. Lowe had already come round to this more sensible point of view for he had written to Biddulph on March 1st. ‘I am glad we can now close the chapter of Alamayou. I will endeavour to give effect to Her Majesty’s wishes as to communication with Captain Speedy and his family.’
On March 8th, Stafford Northcote asked, in the House of Commons why Alamayou had been removed from the care Of Captain Speedy and was answered by Lowe who told him that it was important that he should receive proper teaching 'he is now 11 years old and that opinion (that his health might be injured) was of less consequence in so much as he has no elementary knowledge; so that he would not be fit even for the humblest school. Such as gentlemen’s children attend. He is a person of promising ability, nut I believe he cannot really read or write; at least we were not allowed to see specimens of his performance.’

Speedy sailed for Penang on March 14th, having been presented, on the previous day, by the Queen with a watch and chain ‘as a token of Her Majesty’s appreciation of your kind services to Alamayou’.
Jex-Blake formed a favourable opinion of Alamayou ‘he has considerable social tact, and instinctive good breeding.’ He wrote to Lingen that ‘the prince possesses nothing whatever that belonged to his father or mother. It is much to be hoped that a nation that does not make war for ‘loot’ will let him have something of his father’s and mother’s property for keepsake; and that all that may be entrusted to me for him, will be religiously preserved.’

Lingen noted on his letter ‘souvenirs, speak of Lord Ripon’ but we do not know the outcome of this kindly gesture. In other ways the prospect was not so pleasing; Alamayou, to the horror of Mr. and Mrs. Lingen, was set to work for 31 and a half hours a week and Mrs. Speedy was coldly rebuffed by Mrs. Jex-Blake, who in formed her that the Prince was perfectly well and perfectly happy and that ‘he has every facility for writing, but there appears to be no one he cares to write to.’
Which seems to be either a very rude or a very silly thing to be said by the wife of the schoolmaster. Mrs Speedy complained to Biddulph of this treatment, who replied that he was annoyed and surprised that difficulties had been made in carrying out the Queen’s wish that she should see Alamayou, and advised her to see the boy shortly and report to the Queen. But it would seem that difficulties were still in the way of securing an interview, for on April 8th Biddulph wrote to Lowe that ‘the Queen will be glad if you will be so good as to give orders to Jex-Blake to let him (Alamayou) pass a day at Cheltenham with Mrs. Speedy who is still in England and who will go to see him and Her Majesty wishes that later this summer he may be allowed to go away for a holiday with Mrs. Speedy before she returns to the West.’

It was not until May 16th, over three months after Alamayou’s arrival at Cheltenham, that Mrs. Speedy was able to visit him. She reported to Biddulph that he had grown, but looked paler and thinner, and was quieter in spirits and manner. He assured her that he was well treated by the Jex-Blake, but he complained at the almost complete lack of companionship, only on Saturdays and Sunday do I ever speak to any, then come two, always the same, to play with me, on other days, I never even shake hands with a boy.’’ Mrs Speedy added that ‘the exclusiveness of his arrangement to this respect has been a disappointment to him, Could not help noticing a weariness and want of interest in his life which the companionship he so much desires would greatly assist to remove. There is evidently a felt sense of repression in his surroundings, which, however the great tenderness of his nature and his wonderful consideration for the feelings of others forbid him to show…..he appears thrown for amusement a great deal on his own resources and remembering the difficulty he would naturally find in solitary occupation the weariness which he expressed is not astonishing. He constantly said ‘I want boys and I want more exercise’…I was extremely surprised at his small appetite…..’oh he replied, ‘I cannot eat now I never have any exercise….. only very little.’ I do not think Alamayou seems quite happy and satisfied.

This letter, or report, was shown to the Queen who asked Lady Ely, her Lady of Bedchamber, to write to Biddulph that ‘Her Majesty thinks the little Prince would be the better of more companions also that he should enjoy more exercise.’
Lingen minuted on May 25th that he thought if desirable to avoid contact with Mrs. Speedy between now and her return to India, but as Jex-Blake had already written to him that he would not object to Alamayou spending three weeks holiday with Mrs. Speedy in the summer and as this suggestion was backed by the Queen in a letter to on June 15th, it was arranged that Mrs. Speedy should take Alamayou for a holiday in the Isle of Wight, where he would meet again her nephew, and old friend of Alamayou’s.

On August 1st Mrs. Speedy wrote to Biddulph that Alamayou was un good health and spirits and that he seemed to be making progress in reading and writing.
‘His wish to advance seems chiefly to be prompted by his great desire to be in a position which would enable him to mingle freely with other boys…I trust I may be pardoned for saying that I find it to be the universal impression of all who know Alamayou well, that he would develop in every way successfully if he were given this advantage. His manly character and keenness of observation renders him very apt at learning from life, more than from books and emulation in his lessons would probably be the greatest assistance he could have.
Shortly before Alamayou left Mrs. Speedy to return to Cheltenham, she had his photograph taken and sent one or two copies of this to the Queen which she hoped she would be ‘graciously pleased to accept.

However, Alamayou continued to make some progress with his lessons; In January 1873,Jex-Blake reported that he now reads for his own amusement, the greatest sign of development hitherto visible…… he is always cheerful, and I have never, in ten months, seen him out of temper.’ In April of this year Alamayou went to spend three weeks of his holiday with Biddulph who wrote that ‘the poor boy is staying with me here for part of his holidays, and is as gentle a child as is possible t see and appears to have little trace of his savage origin.’ He must have repeated this visit later on in the year, for the Queen records in her journal for September 6th, at Balmoral, Mary Biddulph brought little Alamayou, who is a dear boy and to whom I gave some studs and a photograph.’ In January of the next year the Queen again writes, at Osborne, ‘took short drive with Beatrice and Jane C. and took tea with Mary Biddulph at Osborne, where we found little Alamayou.’
In July of that year Alamayou wrote to Lady Biddulph a letter, the only one of his that has been preserved.
‘I hope you are quite well. I am sorry to say that Mr. Jex-Blake will not let me come to see the match. I have had a letter from Captain Speedy he says he went to India to some of the brave men from here and before he went to fight the Chinese, he asked the Raga of Caroot to ask them if they could have peace but they would not listen and so the Raga told CAPTAIN Speedy to go and take their forts and Captain Speedy and a hundred men went and took six of their forts and mud stockades and Captain Speedy said that the Chinese put sharp bamboo spikes and poisoned them and so the Malays were afraid to go near the forts, but the Indians did not care because they wore boots. What does Sir Stafford Northcote say about my going into the modern? I am going in for a junior race and I am getting on very well in my class.

I May get the prize I am working very hard. If I stay at Cheltenham I will get my promotion but I should like to know what Sir Stafford Northcote says about it.’
In 1875 Jex-Blake was appointed a master at Rugby and after some discussions it was agreed that Alamayou should follow him there, but that he should not enter Jex-Blakes house but should be boarded in another house.

That of Mr. Lee Warner, but his progress here was not satisfactory, and in April of the nest year Alamayou was entered into the private boarding establishment of a Mr. Draper, of Broxbourne, an old pupil of Jex-Blake’s who received nine or ten pupils, some of whom were of an age with Alamayou. He returned to Rugby after the Easter holidays in 1876 and in May Jex-Balake reported to Biddulph that ‘progress in study he will never make as I would wish; but he is active, manly and pleasant and fitter for the army than for any other life I can think of. Wherever he goes he is well liked, I think, and the Army should give him an excellent training. He is very good at games, especially football, and I have never seen him out of temper.’

Northcote wrote, in the same year that he was uncertain, ‘whether it would do to put Alamayou to command white men. At all events if he is ultimately to join the Indian service it must be through the regular army.’ Later, during the following year, Alamayou was again put with a private tutor, Cyril Ransome, of Leeds. While he was there news reached Jex-Blake that Alamayou could have entrance to the R.M.C. Sandhurst in September 1878 without examination. During the summer of that year it was arranged that he should visit Paris with Ransome to see the International exhibition and should spend part of the vacation with the Biddulphs. In September he entered the R.M.C. as a Cadet and the next news of him is when Northcote wrote to the Queen that, after talks with Jex-Blake, Lord Napier, the authorities at Sandhurst and with Alamayou himself, he was convinced that ‘the young man s ought not to return to Sandhurst. He is doing no good there, and he is unhappy. It so happened that his old friend Captain Speedy is now in this country and he has invited Alamayou to spend a month with him in Scotland. He (Sir Stafford) has asked him to pay him a visit in Devonshire. He hopes something may be done to soothe the irritation of his mind; and that he may afterwards get employment in one of the Frontier regiments in India.’

Alamayou spend three weeks with Northcote in Devonshire, where he seemded very happay, but refused to consider going to a tutor in Gloucestershire, Northcote wrote to Lady Biddulph on October 20th. ‘He had a hankering after his own country where he said he had two aunts and a half brother living. I told him that his going to Abyssinia was out of the question, and he then said there was no one in England, who had ever done him much so good as Mr. Ransome and that he would like to go to him.
Alamayou arrived in Leeds sometime during the late autumn of that year and during October was taken seriously ill in Cyril Ransome’s house.
Before continuing the story it is worth while looking back to three episodes which linked the life of Alamayou with his own country. First, during May 1872, a letter arrived from Abyssinia for Alamayou; it was written in Amharic, and Jex-Balke told Lord Enfield, the under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, that he had been unable to find anyone who could read the language; the Foreign Office soon found itself in the same predicament until, after considerable delay; a missionary, Theophilus Wladmeir, offered to translate the letter, Lord Enfield agreed to see Waldmeir in his office on a Saturday afternoon, where he was told that the letter came from Alamayou’s grandmother, the mother of Queen Terunish.

She asked why Alamayou had not written to her and said that the Abyssinian people were looking forward to his return. Enfield sent this translation to Lowe and no more is heard of it. The second reference is a memorandum written by Ponsonbys, in which he refers to a suggestion made by Sir Bartle Frere that Alamayou might be made King of Abyssinia,

This was written in April 1876, Biddulph reported to the Queen that he had never heard anything more preposterous, that the boy was totally unsuited for such a position and had no wish to return to Abyssinia, he had write forgotten his own language and had no wish to be anything but English. Bartle Frere dropped the suggestion, remarking that nothing was further from his mind ‘than that any attempt should be made to launch poor Alamayou into the troublesome seas of Abyssinian politics.’ IN June 1878 Ponsonby reported to the Queen that ‘General Gordon, commanding the Khedive’s troops… writes in some alarm at Captain Speedy’s doing as he is supporting the chiefs to proclaim Alamayou’.

Again, nothing more is heard of this rumour, but the two episodes show that Alamayou, had he lived, might have played some part in Abyssinia politics.
Northcote wrote to Lady Biddulph about Alamayou illness; ‘I feel I ought to let you know how dangerously ill he is. The last accounts are rather better, and there seems to be fair grounds fro hope; but he is still in a critical state. He is suffering from an attack of pleurisy and had been twice tapped in the chest. His illness has been aggravated and his strength sadly reduced by an extraordinary fancy that he had been poisoned, which let him for some time refuse all food and medicines. He ahs now become more reasonable as to taking what is ordered.’
Dr. Clifford Allbutt, of Leeds, was in charge of the patient and he called into consultation Sir William Gull and Sir James Paget. The Queen was informed of his illness, and on November 4th noted that she had seen Sir Henry Ponsonby after luncheon and told him to telephone to Lady biddulph asking her to go to see Alaamyou. On November 11th Sir John Cowell had called, and found Alamyou very ill, but quite pleased to see him. The Queen wrote him a letter which arrived when ‘he was quite conscious and was much pleased to hear who it was from. He opened it easily and read a few lines, but the exertion pained him and he asked me to put it where he could see it and there it remained until the end.’ Mrs Jex-Balke and Ransome were with him during his illness and he died holding their hands at a quarter past nine on the morning of November 14th, 1879, he was 19 years old. By the Queens wishes Alamayou was buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, but by her wish again, the funeral was conducted with very little display. The Queen and Princess Beatrice sent wreaths, Lady Biddulph, Lady Ponsonby, Mr. and Mrs Jex-Blake, Captain Speedy and the two Chancellors of the Exchequer Lowe and Northcote were present at the ceremony which took place during a bitter snowstorm.

The Times, in a short obituary, reported that Alamayou was a fine well-proportioned young man, about six foot in height. The Queen summed up the whole tragic in her journal for November 14th. ‘was very grieved and shocked to hear by telegram that good Alamayou had passed away this morning. It is too sad. All alone in a strange country, without seeing a person or relative belonging to him, so young and so good but for him one cannot repine, he had no happy life, full of difficulties of every kind, and he was so sensitive, thinking that people stared at him because of his colour and I feared that he would have never been happy. Everyone is very sorry.

This story is told by one BY LORD AMULREE
This is the story of Dejazmach (Prince) Alamayou Tewodros of Ithiopia, the son and Heir to the throne of Ithiopia after his father the Emperor Tewodros, who died during the war of Magdala in 1868. Dejazmach Alamayou was taken away and brought to England, where he would spend his very short life alone from his royal family. Alamayou was born on 23rd April, 1861 and left this plain on 14th November 1879.

There are other books detailing the story of Prince Alamayou and his Royal family. Which also depict the history of Magdala during the time of the British rape and looting of the Empire of Magdala, where it was claimed that the Emperor Tewodros killed himself rather than been captured by the British.

Books:
Alemayehu Tewodros, Prince of Ethiopia written by Joseph Francis (2007)

Obituary was written by the following newspapers at the time of his passing in November 1879.

Daily News November 15th 1879
Daily Chronicle
Daily Telegraph
Evening Standard
The Scotsman