Prince Octavius of Great Britain - Death and Aftermath

Death and Aftermath

Six months after Alfred's death, Octavius and Sophia were taken to Kew Palace in London to be inoculated from the smallpox virus. While Sophia recovered without incident, Octavius became ill and died several days later, around 8 o'clock PM, on 3 May 1783, at Kew Palace. He was four years old. As was traditional, the household did not go into mourning for the deaths of royal children under the age of fourteen.

Octavius has the distinction of being the last member of the British royal family to suffer from smallpox. On 10 May, he was buried alongside his brother Alfred at Westminster Abbey. King George ordered their remains transferred to St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on 11 February 1820, at about 3 o'clock.

According to Queen Charlotte, Octavius' death was unexpected; she wrote to a friend who faced a similar tragedy that "twice have I felt what you do feel, the last time without the least preparation for such a stroke, for in less than eight and forty hours was my son Octavius, in perfect health, sick and struck with death immediately." The prince's death had a marked effect, both mentally and physically on Queen Charlotte, who at the time was pregnant with her youngest child Princess Amelia.

Octavius's death devastated his father; Walpole wrote "the King has lost another little child; a lovely boy, they say, of whom their Majesties were dotingly fond." Shortly afterward, King George said "There will be no Heaven for me if Octavius is not there." The day after his son's death, the King passed through a room where artist Thomas Gainsborough was completing the finishing touches on a portrait of the family. The King asked him to stop, but when he found out that the painting was of Octavius, allowed the painter to continue. When this same painting was exhibited a week later, Octavius' sisters were so upset that they broke down and cried in front of everyone. Three months after Octavius' death, his father was still dwelling on his son, writing to Lord Dartmouth that every day "increases the chasm I feel for want of that beloved object ." In later years, King George imagined conversations with his two youngest sons. During one of the king's bouts of madness in 1788, George mistook a pillow for Octavius, who by that time had been dead for five years.