General Valdemar Tully von Oxholm

A carte-de-visite portrait of the Danish courtier and diplomat General Valdemar Tully von Oxholm (1805-1876).

Born in Copenhagen on 11 November 1805, he was the son the Danish army officer Peter Lotharius von Oxholm (1753-1827), governor-general of the Danish West Indies from 1815 to 1816.

Between 1854 and 1857 he was the Danish minister to the Court of St James in London. He and his wife returned to London in 1863 for the wedding of Princess Alexandra to the Prince of Wales as members of the Princess’s retinue. Arriving aboard the royal yacht at Gravesend on 7 March 1863, they were a part of the bride’s procession at her wedding in St George’s Chapel at Windsor on 10 March 1863. Contemporary reports describe General von Oxholm as the ‘Chamberlain to his Majesty the King of Denmark’ and his wife as the 'Grande Maitresse of the Court of his Majesty the King of Denmark.’ In 1869 he received the Order of the Elephant, Denmark’s highest honour.

He married, firstly, on 29 May 1841, in Hanover Anna von Rudloff, but his wife died four months later. He married, secondly, on 29 October 1846, Marie Sophie Frederikke von Krogh, daughter of General Lieutenant Gerhard Christoph von Krogh, who also became a high-ranking member of the Danish court.

General von Oxholm died at Smidstrupgård on 3 August 1876, aged 70.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London.