Şehzade Ömer Hilmi

Ömer Hilmi lived most of his life in Istanbul in the restrictive surroundings of Dolmabahçe Palace. He was born in the apartments reserved for the Veliahd, the Crown Prince, and then moved into the main palace once his father had become the Ottoman Sultan on 27 April 1909. He was educated privately. Together with his brother, he tried to support his father during the difficult years of the First World War. On the death of his father on 4 July 1918, just before the end of the war, he and his family left Dolmabahçe Palace and moved to a Konak at Nişantaşı during the winter months and to one in Bağlarbaşı, above Beylerbeyi, for the summer.

Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic and the abolition of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Caliphate, the entire Ottoman Imperial family were forced into exile in March 1924. Aged 38, Ömer Hilmi, left Turkey never to return, since he died before the decree of exile was lifted. He went into exile with his mother, Mihrengiz Kadın, who had been the wife of Sultan Mehmed V, and with his two young children, Mahmud Namık and Emine Mükbile. Like all other members of the Imperial family, they left Istanbul from Sirkeci Train Station and first went to Budapest. They lived here for a few months, then moved to Vienna, then Paris, before settling in Nice, France. As the former Ottoman Sultan, Sultan Mehmed VI, had settled in San Remo, many members of the family had congregated in the South of France. After living in Switzerland for a short time, his cousin, the last Caliph of Islam Prince Abdulmecid, also moved to Nice. Ömer Hilmi spent the next 11 years of his life in Nice, struggling to adapt to life in exile, before moving to Alexandria, Egypt in January 1935 with his family. Life in exile was always very difficult since members of the Imperial Ottoman family had no financial means, and all yearned to return to their homeland.

His daughter, Emine Mükbile, who had married her distant cousin Ali Vâsib in 1931, cared for him, her grandmother and brother during all this time. Ömer Hilmi suffered from a stroke and died soon after settling in Alexandria. He died aged 49 at Alexandria, on 6 April 1935, and was buried in Khedive Tawfik Mausoleum, Cairo, Egypt.

He received the Collar of the Hanedan-i-Ali-Osman and the Nişan-ı-Ali-Imtiyaz, Grand-Cross of the Austrian Imperial Order of Leopold (1917).

Hilmi was married four times; he had issue only by his second wife.

• Nesimter Hanım, married at Istanbul, Yıldız Palace, and divorced at Istanbul, Dolmabahçe Palace, in January 1915, without issue.[5]

• Gülnev Hanım (Gence or Aegean Region, 21 February 1890 – Nişantaşı-Pera, 31 December 1919, from Spanish influenza, following an epidemic of the disease, buried in Sultan Reşad Mausoleum, Eyüp), married at Istanbul, Yıldız Palace on 3 October 1910, alias Firdevs, née Hatice, daughter of Fırat Bey by his wife Ayşe Hanım, recognized by her father-in-law, Sultan Mehmed V, for her dedication to charitable causes and was awarded the Imperial Order of Appreciation, 1st Class. She had issue one son and one daughter.

• Faika Hanım, married at Istanbul, Üsküdar, Çamlıca Palace, without issue. The couple later divorced. In 1934 she took the surname 'Hunca'.

• Bahtıter Hanım[5] (Izmir, 12 October 1897 – 1984), married at Istanbul, Üsküdar, Çamlıca Palace, 16 June 1914, without issue.

Showing the line of descent from the founder of the Ottoman dynasty to present day through Sultan Mehmed V Reşad's youngest son Prince Ömer Hilmi Efendi

• Osmanoğlu, Osman Selaheddin (2003). Bir Şehzadenin Hâtırâtı. Turkey: Yapı Kredi Yayınları. ISBN 975-08-0878-9. OCLC 469568294. Retrieved 20 July 2011.

• "Ottoman Family". Official website of the immediate living descendants of the Ottoman Dynasty. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
• "Genealogy of the Ottoman Family". Retrieved 19 August 2008.
• Family Tree, descendants of Sultan Mahmud II. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
• Heirs of Europe, Turkey. Retrieved 2019-06-09.