Place Name
Originally Battenberg Road it was changed following the First World War. This road was laid out sometime around 1887 when land that had belonged to two small outlying paddocks belonging to George III’s former farm were developed by the Crown. One was called Alexandra, the other was to commemorate the wedding of Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, and Henry of Battenberg on July 23, 1885. Since there was already a Beatrice Road they chose Battenberg for the new name. In November 1895, Prince Henry persuaded Queen Victoria to allow him to go to West Africa to fight in the Ashanti War. He served as the military secretary to the commander-in-chief of British forces. He contracted malaria when the expedition reached Prahsu, about 30 miles from Kumasi, and he subsequently died aboard the cruiser HMS Blonde stationed off the coast of Sierra Leone. Anti-German feeling during the First World War meant that the Royal Family changed their name to Windsor and the Battenbergs changed theirs to Mountbatten. Richmond Council went one step further and in 1918 changed the name of this street to Windsor. David Blomfield in Kew Past notes: “It was to prove prophetic. Many years later Prince Philip, heir to the Mountbatten name, took the same decision.”
