97th Birthday of Tsar Nicholas II's Last Surviving Grand-Nephew: The Artist Andrew Andreevich Romanov

Andrew Andreevich Romanov

Today, Andrew Andreevich Romanov celebrates his ninety-seventh birthday. Andrew is the longest-living male descendant of the Romanovs in the history of the family. He is the last surviving great-nephew of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia

Born on 21 January 1923 at London, Andrew was the youngest of the three children of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia (1897 - 1981) and his first wife Donna Elisabetta "Elsa" Sasso-Ruffo (1886 - killed in London during the Blitz in 1940). Andrew followed two older siblings: Xenia Andreevna Romanov (1919 - 2000) and Michael Andreevich Romanov (1920 - 2008). Since their parents' marriage was morganatic, none of the children of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich bear any styles or titles.

Andrew's paternal grandmother: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia

Andrew's paternal grandfather: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia.

Andrew grew up near his grandmother Grand Duchess Xenia (1875 - 1960), who lived in a grace and favour cottage at Windsor. He did not have as much contact with his grandfather, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, as Xenia and Alexander lived separately in exile. Andrew Andreevich received his education at the Imperial Service College. He joined the British Navy in 1942, and served until the end of World War II.

Andrew and Kathleen Romanov after their civil wedding in 1961.

The obituary of Kathleen Romanoff (1967). This appeared in The San Francisco Examiner on 10 December 1967.

In 1949, Andrew moved to the United States. He studied criminology and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1951, Andrew married Elena Konstantinovna Dourneva (1927 - 1992); the couple had one son, Alexis Andreevich Romanov (b.1953). Andrew and Elena divorced in 1959. Andrew remarried in 1961 to San Francisco native Kathleen Norris Roberts (1935 - 1967). Andrew and Kathleen had two sons, Peter (b.1961) and Andrew (b.1963), before Kathleen died of pneumonia at the age of thirty-two. Finally and thirdly, Andrew married artist Inez Storer (b.1933; née Bachelin) in 1987. Andrew and Inez reside in the idyllic town of Inverness, California.

Andrew Romanov and his wife Inez Storer in 2015. Photograph (c) Todd Pickering

Like his wife Inez, Andrew Romanov is an artist, and his works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions. He must have inherited the artistic streak that his grandmother, Xenia, and his grand-aunt, Olga, also possessed. A book entitled The Boy Who Would Be Tsar appeared in 2007 and documented Andrew's life. We wish him many happy returns of the day!