Nephew of Adolf and U.S. Navy Pharmacist’s Mate

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William P. Hitler was born in Liverpool, England, in 1911, the first son of Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, who was an Austrian expatriate named Alois Hitler, Jr. William was the only child of his father and mother, Bridget Dowling. In 1914, Alois abandoned his wife and three-year-old son to travel through Europe. For years, Alois made no attempt to contact his family, telling one person to inform his wife that he was dead. The outbreak of World War I prevented him from returning to England, so he settled in Germany, married again, and started a new family. In 1924, Alois was charged with bigamy in Germany but avoided conviction because Dowling interceded on his behalf.

Alois sent for William when he turned 18. During his visit to Germany, William met his Uncle Adolf at a Nazi rally and in 1930 received an autographed photo of him at another rally.
Upon his return to England, however, William wrote a series of articles on his uncle’s rise to power that the future dictator deemed “unflattering.” Hitler summoned William to Berlin and, in what William described as a “wild-eyed and tearful outburst,” demanded that he retract his words, threatening to kill himself if William wrote any more about him.

Back in England, William had not only attained fame but also disfavor. No one wanted to hire a Hitler, and that lack of opportunity led William back Germany, where he hoped his name might be accepted. But the Germans didn’t want him either. According to William—whose July 4, 1939, article for Look Magazine, “Why I Hate My Uncle,” provides the only source on his dealings with his uncle—he got a letter from his uncle denying they were relatives. Shortly afterward, William’s father sent him back to England.

Not giving up, William gathered evidence of his blood relation to Uncle Adolph—who was now Reich chancellor, the chief executive of Germany—and returned to Germany, hoping to blackmail Hitler into giving him a job.

Finally, Hitler approved a work permit for William, who found work at a Berlin bank and later an automobile factory. After a year of work, however, William was fired and then after insufficient reasoning as to why, was rehired. Nonetheless, he felt increased scrutiny. “I could not even go on an outing without risking a summons to Hitler,” he wrote in the Look Magazine article. After an intense and frightening meeting with his uncle, William again returned to England, where his surname continued to haunt him. He was denied entry into the British armed forces.

Famed U.S. newsman William Randolph Hearst invited William, who was willing to share his knowledge of his uncle, and his mother on a lecture circuit in 1939. While in the states, war erupted in Europe, and William and his mother could not return there.

William tried again to join a foreign military in opposition of his uncle and was again denied because of his name. Then he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “I am one of many, but can render service to this great cause,” he wrote. After being cleared by the FBI, William was authorized to serve in the U.S. Navy, swearing in on March 6, 1944.
William served as a pharmacist mate during his years in the navy, earning a Purple Heart, and was discharged in 1947. After the military, he changed his last name to Stuart-Houston, married Phyllis Jean-Jacques, and settled in Patchogue on New York’s Long Island, where they had four children (the first of whom had the middle name of Adolf).

Historians disagree on the motivations for William's decisions. Some believe his uncle’s policies would have suited him if the economic climate had been to his benefit. Others point out that he could have lived in the United States without joining the military, a decision that suggests a conviction against his uncle’s deeds. No consensus will be attained on these questions unless new archives are discovered. A diary William kept during his time in Germany turned up in the attic of his former home in Patchogue in 2014 but revealed little about his political sentiments. After the war, William never commented publicly on Adolf Hitler or the Hitler family.

After returning to the civilian world, William ran a blood analysis lab, Brookhaven Laboratories, in his family home. He died on July 14, 1987, and was buried next to his late mother in Coram, New York. His children did not produce any children of their own, making them the last of Adolf Hitler’s paternal blood relatives.