On Monday 19th May, Sandhurst Tour guides and staff visited Farnborough Abbey courtesy of the Abbot, Dom Cuthbert. The Abbey was funded by the Empress Eugenie of France as a final resting place for her husband, the exiled Napoleon III and her son Louis, the Prince Imperial, who was killed in the Zulu war of 1879.

The party learned that the Empress moved from a temporary home in Chislehurst and bought the adjacent Farnborough Hill House. The Benedictine order was established to care for the mausoleum and was originally comprised of French monks, with the last dying in 1960. The cemetery contains a Commonwealth War Grave, as one of the monks served in the British Army in the Great War.

The tour took in the recently restored Abbey and the crypt where the remains of the Empress who died in 1920 at the age of 94 are also interred. Louis Napoleon is commemorated with a statue on New College Square, familiar to all who have trained at Sandhurst. The Empress, herself no stranger to grief, was able to offer comfort to the Royal Family when she attended the memorial service for Prince Maurice of Battenburg in 1915. The prince was the youngest grandson of Queen Victoria and the only member of the Royal Family to be killed in action.

Furthermore, we learned that, unlike some other monastic orders, the community is thriving with the average age of monks in their 30s and a long waiting list to be admitted to the order. We are hugely grateful to Dom Cuthbert for giving his time to show us around and educate our staff and guides on this important link with the Academy.

Statue of Prince Imperial – Sandhurst

The statue of The Prince Imperial stands outside New College having been moved from Woolwich in 1955.

The monument was originally unveiled in January, 1883, by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in memory of Louis Napolean Emanuel Jean Joseph, Prince Imperial of France, son of Napoleon III. Louis had been a Gentleman Cadet from 1872 to 1875, when he was commissioned to the Royal Artillery.

25,000 British soldiers donated funds for the statue at Woolwich which was such a local landmark that the bus timetable had a stop called 'Prince Imperial.'

To learn more about the Prince Imperial Statue and the rich history of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, you can purchase our detailed guidebook here.