Archibald Douglas (1883–1960)

Douglas was born on 19 July 1883 at Stjärnorp Castle, Östergötland County as the second of four sons of Count Ludvig Douglas, Marshal of the Realm, and Countess Anna Louise Dorotea (née Ehrensvärd). His younger brother, Count (1888–1946), was a chamberlain, and his elder brother Robert (1880–1955), a nobleman in Germany, married dowager Queen Augusta Victoria of Portugal, widow of King Manuel II. Archibald Douglas was cousin to General Carl August Ehrensvärd (his successor on the Chief of the Army post), Vice Admiral Gösta Ehrensvärd and deputy director of the Ministry of Defence Augustin Ehrensvärd. ==Career==

He was commissioned as an officer in 1903 and was promoted to lieutenant in the Life Regiment Dragoons (K 2) in 1906. Douglas was lieutenant in the General Staff in 1913 and served as general staff officer in the staff of the 1st Army Division (I. arméfördelningen) from 1914 to 1917. He was promoted to captain in 1916 and did the same year a study trip to Galicia region in Central-Eastern Europe. Back in Sweden, Douglas served as a military history teacher at the Royal Swedish Army Staff College in Stockholm from 1917 to 1918 and as general staff officer at the Finnish headquarters during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. During his time in Finland in 1918, he became captain and lieutenant colonel in the Finnish Army Douglas retired from the military in 1948. ==Personal life==

In 1907 he married Astri Henschen (1883–1976) in Ronneby. She was the daughter of Professor Salomon Eberhard Henschen and Gerda (née Sandell). and from 1947 also owned Stjärnorp Castle in East Gothland. The ancestral Stjärnorp Castle, which his father had purchased back to the family some years before Archibald's birth, was designated as Archibald's family seat. He was the father of Ambassador Carl Douglas (1908–1961) and company executive (1910–1992) and grandfather of financier Gustaf Douglas. Through his eldest son, Carl Ludvig, he is the grandfather of Princess Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, wife of Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, and of Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the third wife of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, they divorced in 2008. He is the great-grandfather of Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein. Douglas wrote biographical literature and biographies of Marshal of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (his Finnish contemporary), and Swedish Field Marshal Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, his ancestor. ==Death==

Douglas died in a car accident in near Linköping on 5 July 1960. Douglas, who was 76 at the time, was on his way home from a visit to Norrköping. His eldest son, the Swedish Ambassador to Brazil Carl Douglas, also died in a car accident, just six months later. ==Dates of rank==

• 1906 – Lieutenant • 1916 – Captain • 1919 – Ryttmästare • 1924 – Major • 1928 – Lieutenant colonel • 1930 – Colonel • 1937 – Major general • 1944 – Lieutenant general ==Awards and decorations==

Swedish • King Gustaf V's Jubilee Commemorative Medal (1948) • King Gustaf V's Jubilee Commemorative Medal • Commander 1st Class of the Order of the Sword (14 November 1936) • Commander of the Order of the Sword (25 November 1933) • Knight of the Order of the Sword (1924) • Knight of the Order of the Polar Star (1931) • Knights of the Order of Vasa (1929) • Home Guard Medal of Merit in Gold Foreign • Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog • Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav • 2nd Class of the Order of the Cross of Liberty with Swords • 3rd Class of the Order of the Cross of Liberty with Swords • Commander 1st Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland • Commander of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia • Commander 2nd Class of the Order of the White Lion • Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau with Swords • 3rd Class of the Order of Saint Stanislaus ==Honours==

• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1936) ==Bibliography==