In a toast delivered shortly before the Duke of Edinburgh departed Tasmania, Governor Thomas Gore-Brown asserted that Tasmanians embodied Horace’s maxim that ‘they who cross the seas change their climate, but not their feelings’. Tasmanians were ‘Britons to the back bone…whose loyalty and attachment to the Queen and her Royal family has not been chilled either by time or the distance which separates them from the mother country’. In his response, Alfred joked that he had in fact changed his feelings, for he had not expected Tasmania to be so wet.^[57] Jokes aside, governor and duke had a point. Alfred’s visit to Australia demanded that the prince and the locals display their loyalty to the British throne, affection for the Royal Navy and their adherence to British protocol. This involved asserting the Britishness of Alfred and the majority of colonists. Other cultural elements, however, were not easily forgotten, and the visit highlighted how transnational Australian society, as well as the British monarchy, really was. Like the Tasmanian weather, the loyalties of a British prince and Australian colonists were not always predictable. Moreover, the duke’s experience with Victorian colonists led him to develop new loyalties.

Alfred’s visit reminds us that post-gold-rush Australia was by no means a wholly British or even wholly English-speaking domain. The coexistence of multiple nationalities did not necessarily imply tolerance, of course. Irish and Chinese communities, among others, faced hostility that sometimes spilled over into violence. Neither, however, could the presence of these and other nationalities be wholly ignored or downplayed. The Duke of Edinburgh’s visit provided a superb opportunity for national groups to advertise their contributions to colonial Australia, as well as (with the notable exception of the Irish Catholic clergy) to profess their loyalty to the British Crown.^[58] Ironically, Alfred’s attempted assassination greatly enhanced the opportunities for displays of loyalty, and led to an outpouring of extravagant assertions of submission and devotion.

Alfred’s royal birth distinguished him from Australian colonists in many ways. In his choice of career and his travels to Australia and other colonies, however, he followed a path trod by thousands of other privileged young men seeking their fortunes beyond Britain’s borders. At times, these men wore the uniforms of British officers and/or gentlemen, while at other times they slipped easily into the dress and manners of local elites. Such men often remained single for many years, and seemed most comfortable in the company of other immigrants and travellers. Their experiences, and those of their counterparts in Britain, demonstrated that Victorian masculinity was often performed outside of, and in resistance to, the domestic sphere. Alfred’s transnational life allowed him to share in the colonial experience, albeit that of a privileged minority of men. Examining Alfred’s life helps us to understand better his own complicated identity, and in turn those of colonial Australians. Finally, Alfred’s visit to Australia helps illuminate how many men and women—within and beyond the British Empire—lived transnational lives.