Lt.-Col. Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E., D.S.O. (1874-1948)

This blog post is a different version than the article run today at LRC. So is the one at The Monarchist. They are 3 different versions.

In memory of the protector of Blessed Charles of Austria-Hungary.

On this day 60 years ago, the icon of this weblog passed on from this world.


Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E, D.S.O served His Britannic Majesty George V in the Great War. He was born on February 8, 1874 as a grandson of the first Lord Belper.

Now, why would a pro Central Powers blog have a British officer as its icon? The main reason is that this blog, while indeed being pro Central Powers, preferring a Central Power victor over an Allied victory, is primarily pro old order – and against the new order. It is not primarily a blog against the English-speaking peoples or other peoples of the Allied Powers of the Great War – a war that never should have happened. So the icon of this blog is an old order partisan, who showed his partisanship through action, and who fought the war on the other side. Lt.-Col. Strutt becomes a symbol of reconciliation between peoples, whilst also being a symbol of support for the old order.

Lieutenant-Colonel Strutt was selected by a higher officer at the Allied military headquarters in Constantinople to serve as protector of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family, a mission at the personal initiative of His Britannic Majesty George V. Hence, this blog’s icon is also a symbol of solidarity between monarchs and of personal regal powers, which, alas, had been greatly reduced at the time. However, they were apparently strong enough to create a mission on which the old order came out as victor, whereas the new order, represented by Austrian republican Chancellor Dr. Karl Renner, was completely humiliated.

Dr. Renner demanded an abdication, but Lt.-Col. Strutt was evidently perfectly capable of putting Dr. Renner in his place. With no backing from London whatsoever, Strutt threatened to reestablish the blockade.

This British officer served as a protector of what was arguably the foremost representative of the Old European Order, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-Royal Family. This family’s protector could very well have been an officer who took care of the basic security of the family, but otherwise treated the family as the defeated and the Austrian republican government as one of the victors. Lt.-Col. Strutt did not. He treated the Habsburg family as one of his own, that is, a victor, whilst the republican government was treated as the defeated.

President Wilson had had his crusade against the old order. Lieutenant-Colonel Strutt might not have led a crusade against the new, but he certainly put the new order in its place. There is little doubt, if any, who Strutt preferred at the helm in Vienna. If he had had the power to, and no loyalty to His Britannic Majesty had stood in the way, he would likely have reinstated the Emperor.

Indeed, whereas the old order lost the war, the old order definitely won the Austrian departure.

We honor the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E., D.S.O. on this day.

References on Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, C.B.E, D.S.O can be found in:

• Gordon Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg (e.g., extensive quotes from the officer’s diary).
• Gordon Brook-Shepherd, The Uncrowned Emperor: the Life and Times of Otto von Habsburg.
• The London Gazette (e.g., appointment to Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire (May 30, 1919, supplement published June 3, issue 31377, p. 6983)).
• Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 2003, p. 340 (under Belper).
• Who Was Who (volume for 1941-1950), London.
• Wikipedia.

More on the Royal Scots – the regiment in which our hero served – can be found here and here.


Elsewhere: LewRockwell.com, The Monarchist