Vladimir Nikolaevich Voyeykov
Maj. Gen. Vladimir Nikolaevich Voyeykov was born in the Tsar’s village (Tsarskoye Selo) in 1868, the son of Colonel (later general) Nikolai Vasilyevich Voeikov, commander of His Majesty’s Own Escort. After a youth spent in the Page Corps, the younger Voyeykov became a cornet in the Chevalier Guards in 1887 and by 1907 had risen to colonel commanding His Majesty’s Life Guards Hussar Regiment. An ADC to Nicholas II, by 1909 the younger Voyeykov was a godfather to Tsarevich Alexei, and head of the Tsar’s retineue before becoming palace commandant in 1913, in charge of the personal guards. Arrested after the February Revolution in 1917, he was tossed into the Peter and Paul Fortress but was released and made good his escape to the South during the Civil War, followed by exile to Romania and later Sweden. He passed in 1947, aged 79, and was the holder of more than a dozen foreign orders in addition to his Tsarist ones.