Princess Diana's brother shares rare details about great-great grandfather

Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has paid touching tribute to his great-great grandfather Frederick Spencer.

He also shared rare information about the great-great grandfather.

Sharing the portrait of him, Charles Spencer said, “My great-great grandfather, Frederick Spencer: he was the fourth son, but inherited @althorphouse in 1845 after the death without children of the third of his three elder brothers. (One died as a child; another of disease off the Egyptian coast; the other of oldish age.)”

Born in 1798, Frederick joined the Royal Navy as a 13 year old midshipman during the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to become a vice-admiral, and fought at the Battle of Navarino in 1827, an engagement which helped to gain Greek independence.

He was the Whig MP for Worcestershire, and for Midhurst; then became a senior courtier. Queen Victoria favoured him, and remarked that he had the finest legs in Britain.

Frederick married his second cousin, Georgiana Poyntz, in 1830 and was widowed 21 years later. He married again in 1854 - his second wife was Adelaide Seymour. There were three children from the first marriage - none of whom had children of their own. His son from his second marriage - Bobby - was my great-grandfather, Spencer further shared.

“Sadly, Frederick brought strict naval discipline into the home - supposedly locking any of his children who he judged to have badly misbehaved in the cavity below Althorp’s main staircase. In turn, one of his children recorded with glee Frederick trying their pogo stick - and being flung by it into a ditch.”

He died in 1857, soon after hosting a magnificent ball for Queen Victoria at Spencer House in London.