I would gladly give away everything I own for one brief moment with my English Rose. The other is my grandfather Count Wilhelm von Strelnitz who died in 1944 during the bombing of Berlin. He had been born in 1875,was a diplomat who served for 2 years in the Imperial Court of St. Petersburg where the Tsarina Alexandra gave my grandmother, the Countess von Strelnitz, a fabulous diamond necklace which by a miracle I still have as a keepsake. He was later sent to the Imperial German Legation in Peking from 1898-1911 just in time for the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion. He loved Chinese culture and the Chinese people and felt slightly ashamed of what the European Powers had done to China and my father said that he made light of his own part in the fighting to defend the Foreign Legations. However we all believed he must have done something brave because the Kaiser awarded him the Iron Cross First Class and they most certainly did not give that medal to cowards!He was from the old world where gentlemen never spoke of their own achievements. He returned to Germany in 1912 and in 1913, he witnessed the last great wedding of the Old World which was between Her Imperial Highness Princess Victoria Louise (1892-1980), only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and His Royal Highness Prince Ernest Augustus of Great Britain and Ireland, heir to the Duke of Cumberland. The occasion was attended by King George V of England and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. My grandfather was attached to the staff of the Tsar as Imperial Equerry because the Tsar asked for him by name. At the outbreak of war in 1914, though already 39 years old, he applied and was commissioned into the Elite Cavalry Regiment Garde du Corps in which he served with distinction as can be seen from his medals among my pictures. He was badly wounded at the Battle of the Somme and lost his left hand after which he was appointed to the personal staff of the Kaiser. He remained loyal to the Kaiser whom he followed into exile in Doorn, the Netherlands and returned to Germany in 1941 after His Majesty's death. He came from a wealthy landowning family in East Prussia but at the end of World War I this part of Germany became part of Poland. Their compensation was enough money to buy a railway ticket from Koenigsberg to Berlin.The Poles used the Main Hall of their castle with its priceless paintings, tapestries, marble floors and chandeliers as a barn to keep their livestock in winter! He restored the family fortune by starting a very successful business based in Switzerland in 1919 importing silk and porcelain and exporting diesel engines and cars from Germany. After the Russians destroyed my country in 1945, it was this business which gave my father his start. I owe everything to Grandfather Willi.That is his picture on my page and I look exactly like him except for the uniform.