John Clayton Cowell

Major-General Sir John Clayton Cowell PC KCB (1832–1894) was a British Army officer and later Master of the Queen's Household and Governor of Windsor Castle.^[1]

Early life

Clayton was born at Bean, near Canterbury, in 1832 the son of John Clayton Cowell. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1850 he joined the Royal Engineers, he served with the Baltic fleet and at Crimea where he was Aide-de-camp to General Sir Harry Jones.^[1]

Royal household

Clayton returned to England and from 1856 to 1866 he became Governor to the young Prince Alfred who in 1866 became the Duke of Edinburgh. Clayton performed the same role for a year with Prince Leopold until Leopold became 21. For his duties with the royal princes he was an appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.^[1]

In 1866 Clayton was appointed as Master of the Queen's Household and he retired from the Army in 1879 with the honorary rank of Major-General. In 1892 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Windsor Castle. He was with the Queen's permission responsible for having electric lights installed at Windor Castle.^[1] The town of Cowell, South Australia was named in his honour.

Family life

He married Georgiana Elizabeth Pulleine in 1868 in Yorkshire and had several children. The family home was Clifton Castle at Clifton-on-Yore, Yorkshire. He died on 29 August 1894 at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight due to failure of the heart's action.^[1] His son Albert Victor John Cowell succeeded to the Clifton Castle estate.

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