Marriage(s) and Relationships: Married to: Elizabeth Branch, Ended by: Divorce
Child: Married to: Anita Frisch 1956
Child:Notes: Source: Leo van de Pas.
PRINCE NICHOLAS VLADIMIROVITCH GALITZINE, started life at the Russian
Imperial court and ended it happily presiding over "Ocean
Bliss", a bed and breakfast establishment on Sointula Island off the
north east coast of Canada's Vancouver Island.
In between, the Prince enjoyed a notably varied career. He was at RADA
with Vivian Leigh,had spells in the oil industry in Britain and
Canada,sold Volkswagons in Ottawa; and elocution and poise in British
Columbia.
Prince Nicholas Vladimirovitch Galitzine was born in Tsarskoye Selo
(Tsar's Village) on January 2 1914, the eldest son of Prince Vladimir
Galitzine and his wife, Countess Catherine von Carlow.
His mother was the eldest daughter of the morganatic marriage of Natalie
Wonlarsky to Duke Georg Alexander of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a maternal
grandson of Emperor Paul I of Russia. Through his mother, Prince
Nicholas was also fifth in decent from Princess Augusta of Great
Britain, King George III’s sister and thus a sixth cousin once removed of
the present Queen.
The Galitzine family estate included what is now the Russian Museum in St
Petersburg, and Oranienbaum Palace, which had once belonged to Catherine
the Great; the mother of Emperor Paul I. Young Prince Nicholas spent
much of his early childhood in the Caucasus, where is father was ADC to
the Grand Duke Nicholas.
In 1919, with the Bolsheviks fast approaching, the family fled, But as
they prepared to board their appointed train to the Crimea, Prince
Nicholas's mother discovered she had lost her wedding ring - the last
link with her husband who was by that time fighting in the civil war.She
refused to contemplate travelling after such a bad omen. When the next
day she found her wedding ring,which had fallen into one of the wicker
laundry baskets in which they packed their belongings, she chided herself
for wasting their valuable train tickets. Just as she was doing so a
newsboy informed her that the train they had missed had been hijacked by
Bolsheviks and every last passenger had been shot.
The Galitzines eventually reached Yalta, where they met up with Prince
Vladimir. Nisholas’s great-aunt, Princess Helen of Saxe-Alten a cousin
of the British Royal Family, had arranged for them to be taken on
board the British destroyer Grafton which carried them to safety. They
Were accompaiend by the destroyer Marlborough, in which the Tsar's
sister Grand Duchess Xenia and her children, and the empress Dowager
Maria Feodorovna (king George V's aunt) were embarked.
After switching ships in Constantinople, they sailed on to Naples,where
they caught a train to London- Prince Vladimir deciding Paris had its
Quota of Russian exiles.
Initially, the Galitines settled at Coulsden, Surrey and at Nevern Square
in London. Prince Nicholas set up shop in Berkeley Street which sold
Russian objets d'art. One of his most dedicated customers was Queen Mary,
who had a permanent order for anything interesting to be sent round to
her at Buckingham Palace. Sometimes she would cross out "On approval to
Her Majesty" and write "Kept".
In 1921 the family leased Chessington Hall, near Kingston, where they
farmed chickens and Turkeys. The boys were sent to prep school and on to
Lancing. Nicholas spoke fluent Russian ,French, English and German. He
also had a great talent for mimicry and acting, and in 1934 won a
Leverhulme scholarship to RADA, where, besides Vivian Leigh, his fellow
students included Rachel Kempson.
When he left, he appeared in a number of West End plays and films, and
also taught Russian to Anthony Nutting, later- one of Anthony Eden's
proteges, while staying with the Nuttings at Quenby Hall; Leicestershire.
Resolving not to pursue a career on the stage, Galitzine joined Dominion
Petroleum, at Nottingham, in 1937. Two years. later, on the outbreak of
war, he joined the 5. Battalion, the Scots Guards. He was sent to France
to improve his skiing, and hoped to be sent to join his younger brother
Prince Emmanuel in Finland, where Emanuel was serving in the Finnish Air
Force.
In 1940, Galitzine's mother was killed during a daylight bombing raid
while she was on her way to workfor the censorship bureau in Holborn.
Later, Galitzine transferred to the Royal Navy. He served in the
destroyer 'Eskimo' during the battle of the Atlantic, and was part of the
convoy that sank the 'Bismark'. He served in the same flotilla as Prince
Phillip. In 1942 Galitzine was appointed Flad Lieutenant to Commander in
Chief South Atlantic Vice Admiral Tate, in Cape Town. He was demobilised
in December 1945.
In 1946 he joined Shell International as an export officer, and in 1953
emigrated to Canada, continuing to work for Shell. Subsequently he
became Volkswagons representative in Ottawa. He retired from business in
1967 and moved to British Columbia, where he worked with the provinces
education authority - teaching elocution and poise. In 1980 he bought a
property on Sointula Island, overlooking the sound between the island and
the mainland There he and his second wife opened "Ocean Bliss". I
Galitzine’s company, the 300-mile drive from Victoria to Sointula always
took a long time; the Prince seemed to know everyone en route.
Nicholas Galitzine married first, in 1946 (dissolved 1951), Elizabeth
Branch they had a son. He married secondly, in 1956, Anita Frisch, who
had escape from Riga in 1943 and emigrated to Canada in 1954 they had two
sons and daughter.
Source: Alexis Khilkoff.
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