October 14, 1938
Grand Duke Kirill of Russia, the head of the Romanov family, was laid to rest today after a funeral where "Russian workers in threadbare clothes rubbed shoulders with bearded generals in faded Czarist uniforms."
The coffin was draped with the Imperial flag.
More than 3000 White Russians crammed into the Russian Orthodox church outside Paris to pay their respects.
Thirty priests took part in a funeral service that took more than 3 hours. The mourners included two of Kirill's three children, Grand Duke Wladimir and the Princess of Leiningen, and his brothers, Grand Duke Andrew and Grand Duke Boris and sister, Princess Nicholas of Greece and her daughter, Princess Paul of Yugoslavia. Grand Duke Dimitri, Prince George of Greece and and the former Kaiser Wilhelm II were also present for the funeral.
Wilhelm's grandson, Prince Louis Ferdinand, is married to Kirill's younger daughter, Grand Duchess Kira.
The Grand Duke is will be buried at Coburg next to his wife, Victoria Melita.
Are you sure that Kaiser Wilhelm II was at the funeral? I thought he never left the Netherlands during his exile after World War I? I also have a hard time believing that the former German Emperor would be welcomed in Paris. Thanks Marlene,
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He was listed among the guests in the Chicago Tribune. But not in the Times.
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