| Authorised form of name | Albert (1819 - 1861); Prince Consort of Queen Victoria |
| Other forms of name | Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel |
| Dates | 1819 - 1861 |
| Place of birth | Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany |
| Date of birth | 26 August 1819 |
| Place of death | Windsor Castle |
| Date of death | 14 December 1861 |
| Membership category | Royal Fellow |
| Date of election | 30/04/1840 |
| Relationships | Second son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha; married (10 February 1840, Chapel Royal, St James' Palace, London) Queen Victoria |
| PublishedWorks | The Exhibition of 1851
The Speech of H.R.H. The Prince Albert, K.G., F.R.S., at The Lord Mayor's Banquet, in the City of London, October 1849.
'I conceive it to be the duty of every educated person closely to study and watch the time in which he lives; and as far as in him lies, to add his mite of individual exertion to further the accomplishment of what he believes Providence to have ordained. Nobody, however, who has paid any attention to the features of our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition which tends rapidly to the accomplishment of that great end to which indeed, all history points-the realization of the unity of mankind. Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but rather a unity, the result and product of those very national varieties and antagonistic qualities. The distances which separated the different nations and parts of the globe are gradually vanishing before the achievements of modern invention, and we can traverse them with incredible ease; the languages of all nations are known and their acquirements placed within the reach of everybody; thought is communicated with the rapidity and even by the power of lightning.
On the other hand, the great principle of the division of labour which may be called the moving power of civilization, is being extended to all branches of science, industry and art. Whilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal knowledge, and that knowledge was confined to a few, now they are directed to specialities, and in these again, even to the minutest points; but the knowledge acquired becomes at once the property of the community at large. Whilst formerly discovery was wrapt in secrecy, the publicity of the present day causes, that no sooner is a discovery or invention made, than it is already improved upon and surpassed by competing efforts: the products of all quarters of the globe are placed at our disposal, and we have only to choose what is the cheapest and best for our purposes, and the powers of production are intrusted to the stimulus of competition and capital.
So man is approaching a more complete fulfilment of that great and sacred mission which he has to perform in this world. His reason being created after the image of God, he has to use it to discover the laws by which the Almighty governs His creation, and, by making these laws his standard of action, to conquer nature to his use-himself a divine instrument. Science discovers these laws of power, motion and transformation; industry applies them to raw matter which the earth yields us in abundance, but which becomes valuable only by knowledge; art teaches us the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry, and gives to our productions forms in accordance with them.
Gentlemen, the Exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a living picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived in this great task, and a new starting point from which all nations will be able to direct their further exertions.'
Published in The Illustrated London News, 11 October 1849. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Council Minutes 9 January 1862
References:
Speech at 1851 Exhibition in 'Illustrated London News' 11 October 1849
Sir Patrick Linstead, 'The Prince Consort, FRS, and the Founding of the Imperial College' in NR 1962 vol 17 pp 15-31, plate
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| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/25395950 |
| Code | NA6295 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| MS/843/10 | Letter from Edward Sabine, 13 Ashley Place, to William Sharpey | 1 June [1860] |
| MC/5/61 | Letter from C [Charles] Grey, Windsor Castle, to the Earl of Rosse, [President of the Royal Society] | 16 November 1852 |
| MC/5/101 | Letter from C [Charles] Grey, Osborne [House], to the Earl of Rosse, [President of the Royal Society] | 7 May 1853 |
| MM/9/2 | Letter from Charles Lyell, Kinnordy, to Susan Horner | 5 September 1849 |
| PC/2/4/2 | Illustration, 'The Marquis of Northampton’s soirée', by Henry Harrison | 1847 |
| MC/3 | Volume 3 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1839-1843 |
| MC/3/98 | Letter from [George Edward] Anson, Buckingham Palace, to the Marquis of Northampton, President of the Royal Society | 8 June 1840 |
| MC/3/132 | Letter from [George Edward] Anson, Buckingham Palace, to the Marquis of Northampton, President of the Royal Society | 12 January 1841 |
| MC/3/228 | Letter from [George Edward] Anson, Windsor Castle, to the Marquis of Northampton, [President of the Royal Society] | 11 June 1842 |
| MC/4/312 | Letter from [Alphonse] Chaluz de Vernevil [?], 8 Fenison Street, York Road, Lambeth, to the [Earl of Rosse] President of the Royal Society and to the Council | 2 January 1850 |
| MC/4 | Volume 4 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1844-1850 |
| MC/5/377 | Letter from Prince Albert, Osborne, to Baron [Alexander von] Humboldt | 10 December 1858 |
| MC/5 | Volume 5 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1851-1858 |
| MC/6/125 | Letter from Ja [James] Clark, Bagshot Park, Surrey, to [William] Sharpey, [Secretary of the Royal Society] | 8 February 1861 |
| MC/6 | Volume 6 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1859-1863 |
| MC/6/291 | Letter from H Waddington, Whitehall, to W [William] Sharpey, [Secretary of the Royal Society], Burlington House | 11 January 1863 |