Prince George, Duke of Cambridge

Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was a member of the British royal family, a male-line grandson of King George III and cousin of Queen Victoria. The Duke was an army officer by profession and served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1856 to 1895. He became Duke of Cambridge in 1850 and field marshal in 1862. Deeply devoted to the old Army, he worked with Queen Victoria to defeat or minimise every reform proposal, such as setting up a general staff. His Army became a moribund and stagnant institution, lagging far behind the French Army and the German Army. Its weaknesses were dramatically revealed by the poor organisation at the start of the Second Boer War.