Nicknamed Affie, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.

Alfred was baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, at the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle on 6 September 1844.

[5] Following the expulsion of King Otto of Greece in 1862, Prince Alfred was chosen to succeed him, but the British government blocked plans for him to ascend the Greek throne, largely because of the Queen's opposition to the idea.

Prince Alfred remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 February 1863, serving under his half-cousin Count Gleichen on the corvette HMS Racoon.

[6] Gleichen's son recalled his father as saying that "the Prince, although shaping well as a sailor, was of a somewhat wayward disposition at that period, and his high spirits more than once led him into minor troubles with the authorities.

[6] Lord Charles Beresford described him as having "a great natural ability for handling a fleet" and noted that he "would have made a first-class fighting admiral.

The shot, fired at point-blank range, ricocheted off one of the metal clips on Alfred's trouser braces, narrowly missing his spine.

[10] He was tended to for the next two weeks by six nurses, trained by Florence Nightingale and led by Matron Lucy Osburn, who had just arrived in Australia in February 1868.

[11] In the violent struggle during which Alfred was shot, William Vial had managed to wrest the gun away from O'Farrell until bystanders assisted.

Vial, a master of a Masonic Lodge, had helped to organise the picnic in honour of the Duke's visit and was presented with a gold watch[12] for securing Alfred's life.

On the evening of 23 March 1868, the most influential people of Sydney voted for a memorial building to be erected, "to raise a permanent and substantial monument in testimony of the heartfelt gratitude of the community at the recovery of HRH".

He was also the first member of the royal family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on HMS Galatea, where he spent a month living in Pakuranga.

[19] During a visit to his sister Alice in August 1868, Alfred met Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, then fourteen years old.

On 23 January 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh married Maria Alexandrovna, the second (and only surviving) daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg.

To commemorate the occasion, the English bakery Peek Freans made the now internationally popular Marie biscuit, with the Duchess' name imprinted on its top.

Alfred's last command prior to promotion to flag rank would be as captain of HMS Black Prince in 1878, when he represented the Crown during the installation of John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, as Governor General of Canada.

Alfred was subsequently promoted rear-admiral upon his return to London and relief on 30 December 1878, becoming admiral superintendent of naval reserves, raising his flag aboard the corvette HMS Penelope in November 1879.

[26] Promoted to vice-admiral on 10 November 1882, he was given command of the Channel Squadron, with his flag aboard the armoured ship HMS Minotaur, in December 1883.

[32]: 11 Alfred died of throat cancer on 30 July 1900 in a lodge adjacent to Schloss Rosenau, the ducal summer residence just north of Coburg.

Victoria dedicated a memorial in the form of a Celtic cross to Alfred in the grounds of Balmoral Castle which was erected shortly before her death.

He laid the corner stones of new town halls in the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and those buildings continue in use today.

It begins at the junction with Chapel Street and proceeds southward until reaching a car park along the Constitution river in the vicinity of the former James Fort.

Two islands in Ontario are named for Prince Alfred, one in the St Lawrence River near Brockville, and the other in Lake Nipigon north of Thunder Bay.

Prince Alfred sailed into Port Elizabeth on 6 August 1860 as a midshipman on HMS Euryalus and celebrated his 16th birthday among its citizens.

In Cape Town during his visit in 1868, Prince Alfred ceremonially tipped the first load of rock to commence the building of the Breakwater.

This was built by convict labour and formed the protective seawall for the new Cape Town Harbour, now redeveloped as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and a popular tourist and shopping destination.

The Port Elizabeth Chapter of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, a veterans association, is known as the Prince Alfred Shellhole.

One of the stamp collectors in the British royal family, Prince Alfred won election as honorary president of The Philatelic Society, London in 1890.