Xavier Uhlmann

Interesting post. Was this chap with the Prince in South Africa. And do we know his Nationality.














[b]By Admin Topic relating to X Uhlmann Pictorial catalogue of AZW Graves & Memorials.[/b]

Funny that I was just looking him up. Found this.

"Uhlmann had been valet and body-servant to the Prince Imperial. He was a great big man, very serious, reliable, and invaluable in every way. I had several talks with him about the Prince, to whom he had been extremely devoted, and whose death was a blow which he could not get over. Uhlmann had been with him nearly all his life, at Chislehurst and at Woolwich, where the Prince was following his military training. He also went out to Zululand, and was with his young master till the very eve of his death. He was a most excellent person for any young man to have near him — perfectly straightforward, sincere and earnest. I never heard any one say a disparaging word
of the Prince all the time I was at Farnborough, though Mme. Le Breton and M. Pietri could at times speak out very frankly about any one. He seems by common consensus of opinion to have been a wonderfully fine young fellow. Those who had only known him slightly were as loud in his praises, as those others who knew him more
intimately. Uhlmann, who had had the greatest possible facilities for observation, spoke of him in glowing terms, and this means a good deal, for there are few exceptions, I believe, to the dic- tum, that "no one is a hero to his valet." From all Uhlmann said, with what I had already gathered from others, and they had all been friends of his childhood, I could reach only one verdict about him — that he was deeply and truly good."

Source: Empress in Exile.

His full was Xavier Uhlmann and he was an ex-dragoon.

Thanks for the infoe: Any luck with Nationality.

I wonder what it was Uhlmann was referring to.

" A few weeks before the Prince's death, Uhlmann, the Prince's valet, writing from the Cape to his friends at Chislehurst, made this curious statement : " At the Cape
and at Natal there are lots of Communards. For the Prince's sake I fear them more than the Zulus."

In the 1881 census Xavier is living in Farnborough Green with his wife Elizabeth, he was then aged 53 and she 50 - both born in France. His occupation is Servant/Treasurer. Communards (or Communists) were members of the Paris Commune and very anti the Imperial family - the French have something of a history when it comes to relieving the aristocracy of their heads! Both that and the ignominious defeat of France (led by Napoleon 111) by Prussia in the Franco Prussian War were the reasons the Imperial Family were exiled in England. So, Communards in South Africa were probably perceived as a greater threat to the Prince Imperial than the Zulu - particularly as the Army had no intention of letting him near the enemy if they could help it. Oops, another blunder.

Steve

rusteze. Interesting post. So he was French.

"In the same journal on July 12, 1879, there was an account of the opening of the coffin at Woolwich :

This scene, so terrible to the assistants, lasted for a considerable time. On openin the coffin it was found that the operation of embalming the corpse, always difficult when several wounds have been inflicted, had been imperfectly performed, and that, although decomposition had not proceeded to any very great extent, the features of the ill-fated young soldier had undergone such serious change as to make the work of recognition almost as difficult as it was painful. Some of the features had suffered terribly, but all doubt as to the identity of the deceased Prince was set at rest by the peculiarity of his dentition. M. Rouher declared himself " satisfied " as to the identity of the body, and the same opinion was expressed by many of those who viewed it, including [the late] Monsignor Goddard. Uhlmann, the old personal servant of the Prince, who carried the sword of his dead master, fainted at the sight of the distorted features of one he had loved so well and served so faithfully.

The mortuary chapel, in which the remains were deposited for an hour or so before being taken to Chislehurst, was cleared of all but the Murat Princes, the two Princes Bonaparte (Lucien and Charles), the Due de Bassano, M. Rouher, the medical men (Barons Larrey, Corvisart and Dr Conneau), Mon- signor Goddard and Mr Evans, and then the coffin was opened and the " identification " commenced.

The coffin [said Comte d'HeVisson, writing in the " Gaulois " before the arrival at Woolwich of the Admiralty yacht Enchantress with the remains of the illustrious dead] will be
placed in a salle draped with black, where the legal constatations will take place, and where the coffin will be opened. All these formalities depend upon the tenour of the proces-verbaux accompanying the body ; their contents are not yet known in England. . My first care, on arriving at Woolwich, was to go on board the Enchantress, and see the chamber in which was the coffin. Touching and heart-breaking spectacle ! Round the bier were Prince Joachim Murat, Louis de Turenne, Count Davilliers and Admiral Duperr6, all standing with bowed heads.

The clergy came to conduct the coffin to the chapelle ardente in the armoury of the Arsenal, where the constatation de l'identit£ will be made. I pass Uhlmann, the Prince's servant. He is like one demented. In a voice broken by tears and sobs he tells how he saw the Prince's body riddled with horrible wounds. The left side was transpierced. The Prince had parried the assegais with his left arm, which was shockingly mutilated.

At the Arsenal it is rumoured that the Empress has refused to allow the constatation de-'identity to be
made. [This was not so.]

At 4.30 the Prince of Wales arrives, and remains half an hour. In the chapelle ardente fifteen persons, at the most, are grouped : they are the Princes of the family, M. Rouher, General Fleury, the Due de Mouchy, M. Pietri, Dr Corvisart and the other legataires. The coffin is opened, despite the rumoured opposition of the Empress. The constatation de l'identite takes place amidst profound anguish and behind a white veil, which drapes the entrance to conceal as much as possible this sad formality. . . . The Royal Dukes and the Prince of Wales talk with Prince Murat and M. Rouher. I leave with them for Chislehurst.

Mr Evans, the dentist, who had on several occasions attended the Prince, has examined the teeth, in which he recognised certain indications which had formerly claimed his attention. Other persons have also recognised an old cicatrice in one of the hands of the Prince. The Empress [on the day after the funeral] asked to see Uhlmann. The faithful servant came, and remained with her nearly an hour, answering her questions, and satisfying her maternal curiosity. This touching inter- view caused the Empress so much feverish excitement that, in order to bring the conversation to an end, Dr Corvisart was obliged to plead Uhlmann's fatigue. The Empress wished also to see the Prince's orderly, Lomas; she has had a long talk with him. The Empress expressed a desire that both Lomas and Uhlmann should remain in her service.

Comte d'Herisson complains that he was not invited by Prince Murat to enter the chapelle ardente (where the body was lying) until after the few persons who were allowed to be present had left, and when the plumber was soldering down the coffin-lid :

Thus I only know the state of the body by what was told me by certain persons who had seen it, and who left the chapelle ardente absolument attends (absolutely horrified).
I have said that, although the Prince was completely unrecognisable, he was nevertheless identified by Mr Evans, who, from his inspection of the teeth, was able to sign a solemn declaration that the body was, indeed, that of the Prince Imperial. The English medical Press enables us to establish the truth upon this point."

Hi All

As rusteze says, he was french. I have had his graves translated (See Below)

Hi rusteze .
A collegue has contacted in regard to Uhlmann and the Communards and his basically along the same lines as your post.
The Boneparte family were chased out of Paris by the Mob angered by Napoleon 111's apparent mismanagement of the
Prussian Invasion , that Mob rising became the Paris Commune . Those with ' His Face To The Foe ' will find that while in
Zululand the Prince sought out a number of Frenchman who were serving with the Irregulars , but not all were pleased to see him,
there is an Anecdote on page 159 , suggesting that some were distincly un - impressed !. On one occasion he chatted to a couple
and gave them a sovereign each , and basically as soon as his back was turned they went off to buy Brandy !. Uhlmann may have
been worried that some of these men may have been ardent Communards who may be openly hostile to the Prince . But , it seems most
were indifferent to him .
cheers 90th

The people of Paris had suffered terribly as a result of Napoleon 111's incompetence and the resulting Prussian seige. Starvation was rife and even the rats in the city were eaten. Napoleon 111 was an arrogant and conceited man who revived in the French memories of the time before the revolution (let them eat cake etc.). It was therefore a little more than "mismanagement" that caused the Paris rising and led to the Imperial family fleeing into the arms of good old Queen Vick. As ever, the Royals stuck together (I know Napoleon was not strictly Royal, but he acted as though he were) and the British, always fearful of the mob themselves, provided a safe haven. Not sure we backed the right side.

Steve