Friedrich Carl Meyer

Friedrich Carl Meyer – period of service: 1846–Mai 1851

Friedrich Carl Meyer (1805-1884) came to London in 1846 to replace Eduard Prätorius. But this was not his first visit to Great Britain, as, according to the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Friedrich Carl Meyer had travelled to Wales in 1844-5 after winning the Welsh Essay Competition “Abergavenny Eisteddfod” in 1842. During this journey, he wanted to get closer to Welsh culture and its people and visit libraries. According to the Centre, Meyer continued to provide financial support for cultural institutions in Wales after accepting the position as private secretary in London. He also lectured on the Welsh language in Oxford and equipped the Royal Library with a canon of Celtic literature. Meyer must have promised Prince Albert to write a book on the Welsh language. In June 1850 Albert complained that this work was still not complete.

All in all, Prince Albert was not satisfied with Meyer. Albert had built up a good relationship with him and believed that this would lead to a lasting friendship; he found Meyer reliable, good-natured and active, and Meyer had also “brought the German zeal to the job”, but alas, he was not interested enough in his business with the Prince. According to Albert, Meyer “had no sense of method, order, punctuality, accuracy, cleanliness, etc. You don’t know the value of time,” he wrote to Meyer. All this, as well as Meyer’s inability to adapt to life at the English court, finally gave Albert reason to let Meyer go. There had been some previous trouble in the autumn of 1847 because Meyer had been too brash with the ladies at court. Having cautioned him several times, and despite some improvement, Albert wrote to Meyer in June 1850:

“While I must praise you for having taken great pains to avoid the infringements of form and traditional decency to which I have drawn your attention in the past, and I was glad to note with which good-naturedness and courtesy you are willing to help others wherever you can, I cannot hide the fact that you have not succeeded in making yourself popular in the house or in society, but rather, after continued and precise examination and observation, I find that the Foreigner, who is unpleasant to the Englishman in any case, is seen even less favourable in your personification, especially by the females at court, yes I would like to say, without exception, that your great vivacity, your inquisitiveness bordering on nosiness and lack of the finer tacte du grand monde may be to blame.“

Albert was bitterly disappointed and had to send Meyer away. But he did not rush into anything as Meyer stayed until the end of the year. He then seems to have  moved to Heidelberg, for Princess Augusta reported in a letter that Meyer lived and worked there. Albert and Meyer remained in contact after his departure from London, as shown by several letters between them after his departure.