Sir John Ponsonby Conroy, 1st Baronet, KCH (21 October 1786 – 2 March 1854) was a British military officer best known for serving as comptroller to the Duchess of Kent and her young daughter, the future Queen Victoria.

Born in Wales to Irish parents, he was educated in Dublin before being commissioned into the British Army's Royal Artillery in 1803, managing to avoid active service during the Napoleonic Wars.

Holding the position of comptroller of the Duchess of Kent's household for the next nineteen years, Conroy also acted as her confidant and political agent, among other roles.

[1] Serving in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars, his efforts to avoid active military service earned Conroy the ire of fellow officers.

[12][13][13] Through the connection of his wife's uncle,[note 1] Conroy came to the attention of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III.

[1][2] An efficient organiser, Conroy's planning ensured the Duke and Duchess' speedy return to England in time for the birth of their first child.

[15] Aware that he needed to find another source of revenue quickly,[9] Conroy offered his services as comptroller to the now-widowed Duchess of Kent and her infant daughter.

[16] Together in a hostile environment,[2][note 2] Conroy's relationship with the Duchess was very close, with him serving as her comptroller and private secretary for the next nineteen years,[18] as well as holding the unofficial roles of public relations officer, counsellor, confidant and political agent.

An elaborate and oppressive system of rules regulating every facet of Victoria's life, it kept her in reclusive isolation most of the time, with the goal of making her weak, compliant and utterly dependent upon her mother and Conroy.

[2] Aware of the reasons behind King George IV's unpopularity,[note 3] Conroy promoted a public image of the Duchess that was pure, modest and decorous,[23] while at the same time increasing her paranoia against the British royal family, particularly the Duke of Cumberland.

[25] Some historians have conjectured that Conroy's arrogant behaviour towards Victoria may have stemmed from a personal belief that his wife Elizabeth was secretly the illegitimate child of the Duke of Kent.

[28] The enforced isolation meant the only companions of her own age whom she frequently came into contact with were Conroy's daughters,[2] who included Victoire, a girl a few months younger than Victoria.

[34][35] In return for making Sophia a member of the Duchess's social circle, the princess reported back to Conroy on activities at St. James's Palace and Kensington when he was absent.

[42] The Duchess prevented her daughter from attending William's coronation out of a disagreement of precedence,[note 4] a decision attributed by the Duke of Wellington to Conroy.

[46] The new king and queen attempted to gain custody of their niece, but Conroy quickly replied that Victoria could not be "tainted" by the moral atmosphere at court.

[47][48] In 1831, the year of William's coronation, Conroy and the Duchess embarked on a series of royal tours with Victoria to expose her to the people and solidify their status as potential regents.

[52] Aware that a regency was becoming increasingly unlikely, Conroy and the Duchess began promoting the view of Victoria as a "weak-minded, frivolous and foolish" girl in need of guidance.

[53] Victoria was forbidden to be alone with her beloved Lehzen; either the Duchess's ally Lady Flora Hastings or a Conroy sister (now appointed as companions) were required to accompany her.

[57] Even after Victoria's eighteenth birthday on 24 May 1837, Conroy continued to pressure her to appoint him as her private secretary or acknowledge her need for a regent until she turned twenty-one.

[66] Queen Victoria, as an unmarried young woman, was still expected to live with her mother, but she relegated the Duchess and Conroy to remote apartments at Buckingham Palace, cutting off personal contact with them.

[69][70] In 1842, Conroy settled at his family home in Arborfield Hall near Reading, Berkshire and became a gentleman farmer, winning prizes for his pig breeding.

[64] According to Flora Fraser, the most recent biographer of George III's daughters, Princess Sophia had in fact personally spent huge sums on Conroy, including heavy contributions to the purchase prices of his residences and supporting his family in a style he judged appropriate to their position.

The article briefly summarised his lifetime and praised Conroy for "considerable shrewdness, no small knowledge of human nature and a very winning address" as well as "devoting himself with great zeal and assiduity" to members of the royal family.

Twentieth-century historian Christopher Hibbert writes that Conroy was a "good-looking man of insinuating charm, tall, imposing, vain, clever, unscrupulous, plausible and of limitless ambition.

"[78] For her part, 21st-century historian Gillian Gill describes Conroy as "a career adventurer, expert manipulator and domestic martinet" who came to England with "small means, some ability and mighty ambition.

[79] In August 1829, Wellington reported to court diarist Charles Greville that Victoria, then ten years old, had caught Conroy and her mother engaged in "some familiarities".

[81] Later, as an aged Queen, Victoria was aghast to discover that many people did indeed believe that her mother and Conroy were intimate and stated that the Duchess' piety would have prevented this.

There is more reliable documentation that one of her great-great-grandsons, Prince William of Gloucester, was diagnosed with the disease shortly before his death when his aircraft crashed during an air race.

[97] However note that, due to intermarriage, Prince William's grandmother Queen Consort Mary of Teck was a granddaughter of George III's son and Edward's younger brother Adolphus.

Concrete evidence on the origins of the disease and paternity of Victoria could be achieved with a DNA test of her or her parents' remains, but no such study has been sanctioned by the Royal Family.