Major-General Sir John Clayton Cowell PC

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

 KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (1832-1894) was a British Army officer and later Master of the Queen's Household

Master of the Household

The Master of the Household is the operational head of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom...

 and Governor of Windsor Castle.

Early life

Calyton was born at Bean, near Canterbury, in 1832 the son of John Clayton Cowell. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1850 he joined the Royal Engineers, he served with the Baltic fleet and at Crimea where he was Aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to General Sir Harry Jones

Harry Jones (British Army officer)

General Sir Harry David Jones GCB DCL was a British Army officer who became Governor of the Royal Military College Sandurst.-Military career:...

.

Royal household

Clayton returned to England and from 1856 to 1866 he became Governor to the young Prince Alfred

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...

 who in 1866 became the Duke of Edinburgh. Clayton performed the same role for a year with Prince Leopold

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

The Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany was the eighth child and fourth son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Leopold was later created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow...

 until Leopold became 21. For his duties with the royal princes he was a appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

.

In 1866 Clayton was appointed as Master of the Queen's Household

Master of the Household

The Master of the Household is the operational head of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom...

 and he retired from the Army in 1879 with the honorary rank of Major-General. In 1892 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Windsor Castle. He was with the Queen's permission responsible for having electric lights installed at Windor Castle. The town of Cowell, South Australia

Cowell, South Australia

Cowell is a coastal town on Franklin Harbour on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, in South Australia on the Lincoln Highway 111 km south from the major town of Whyalla...

 was named in his honour.

Family life

He married Georgiana Elizabeth Pulleine in 1868 in Yorkshire and had several children. The family home was Clifton Castle at Clifton-on-Yore

Clifton-on-Yore

Clifton-on-Yore is a civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England.In parkland by the river Ure is Clifton Castle, a country house built c1800 on the site of a fourteenth century castle, of which a piece of walling survives.....

, Yorkshire. He died on 29 August 1894 at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight due to failure of the heart's action.