- Son of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.
- Uncle of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864-1918), Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine, Tsarina Alexandra and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (1874-1878).
- Great-grandfather of King Michael, and King Peter II of Yugoslavia.
- Prince Alfred, therefore, remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 February 1863, serving under Count Gleichen on the corvette HMS Racoon. He was promoted to captain on 23 February 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate HMS Galatea in January 1867.
- In the Queen's Birthday Honours on 24 May 1866, the Prince was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster, and Earl of Kent, with an annuity of £15,000 granted by Parliament.[4] He took his seat in the House of Lords on 8 June.
- He was also a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and his collection, valued at half a million marks, was presented by his widow to the Veste Coburg, the enormous fortress on a hill top above Coburg.
- Alfred was exceedingly fond of music and took a prominent part in establishing the Royal College of Music. He was a keen violinist, but had little skill. At a dinner party given by his brother, he was persuaded to play. Sir Henry Ponsonby wrote: 'Fiddle out of tune and noise abominable.
- Alfred remained second in line to the British throne from his birth until 8 January 1864, when his older brother Edward and his wife Alexandra of Denmark had their first son, Prince Albert Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and as Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred was further demoted in the order of succession.
- 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". This led to a public subscription which paid for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's construction.
- He visited Hawaii in 1869 and spent time with the royal family there, where he was presented with leis upon his arrival. He was also the first member of the royal family to visit New Zealand, arriving in 1869 on HMS Galatea. He also became the first European prince to visit Japan and on 4 September 1869, he was received at an audience by the teenaged Emperor Meiji in Tokyo.
- Alfred soon recovered from his injury and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April 1868. He reached Spithead on 26 June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months.
- Alfred studied violin at Holyrood, Edinburgh, where his accompanist was Hungarian expatriate George Lichtenstein.
- Manta alfredi is commonly known as Prince Alfred's manta ray.
- A Prince Alfred Street can be found in Pietermaritzburg, Queenstown, Grahamstown, Durban and Caledon. There is some opposition to Prince Alfred Street in Durban being renamed Florence Nzama Street. In Port Elizabeth there is a Prince Alfred's Terrace.
- Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, Prince Alfred Park in Sydney, Prince Alfred Square in Parramatta, and the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, now in Newport, are named in his honour.
- He was survived by his mother, Queen Victoria, who had already outlived two of her children, Alice and Leopold. She died six months later.
- In Simon's Town, Prince Alfred Hotel was built in 1802 and renamed after the prince visited Cape Province in 1868. For more than two centuries Simon's Town has been an important naval base and harbour (first for the Royal Navy and now the South African Navy). The former hotel now houses the Backpackers' Hostel, opposite the harbour in the main street.
- The name of the small township of Alfredton (near Eketahuna in the lower North Island of New Zealand) honours the prince.
- Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the settlement on Tristan da Cunha, was named after Alfred after he visited the remote islands in 1867 while Duke of Edinburgh.
- In Cape Town during his visit in 1868, Prince Alfred ceremoniously 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.
- Prince Alfred was born on 6 August 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, the Prince of Wales.
- Brother of Victoria Adelaide Mary Saxe-Coburg (1840-1901), Edward VII (1841-1910), Alice Maud Mary Saxe-Coburg (1843-1878), Helena Saxe-Coburg (1846-1923), Louise Saxe-Coburg (1848-1939), Arthur Saxe-Coburg (1850-1942),, Leopold Saxe-Coburg (1853-1884), and Beatrice Saxe-Coburg (1857-1944).
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