Russian and German Royalty. Born Alexander Friedrich Konstantin Petrovich of Oldenburg, he was the second son of Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg. Though he had a German title and ancestry, he and his siblings were born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia as the grandchildren of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia. He served as Adjutant general to Alexander III of Russia, and also as commanding general of the Imperial Guard. He was the Russian candidate submitted to succeed Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, though this nomination failed to gain the support of the other great European powers. At the outbreak of World War I, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia appointed him, a medical doctor, as supreme chief of the medical service of the military and naval forces. He and his wife, Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, were noted for their philanthropy, establishing schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable organizations in Russia. During World War I, he famously invited wounded British and French soldiers to stay for free in a sanatorium he founded in the Crimea. When the Russian revolution broke out in 1917, he was initially reported to have been one of the Imperial family killed by the newly emerged Bolshevik government. However, this turned out to be only a rumor as he was able to escape to Finland and eventually to France, where he died penniless at Biarritz at the age of 88. He was the recipient of numerous Russian and foreign honors, including the Knight of St. Anna, 3rd Class, the Imperial Order of Saint Andrew, the Knight of St. Andrew, the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, the Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, the Order of Saint Anna, the Knight of the White Eagle, the Knight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class, the Order of Saint Vladimir, the Knight of St. Vladimir, 3rd Class, the Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown, the Austria-Hungary Grand Cross of St. Stephen, and the Bulgarian Grand Cross of St. Alexander.