Agathe Whitehead

Agathe Gobertina von Trapp (née Whitehead; 14 June 1891 – 3 September 1922) was a British-Austrian heiress and aristocrat. She was the first wife of Georg Ritter von Trapp and the mother of seven children of the Trapp Family singers. Early life and family Whitehead was born on 14 June 1891 in Fiume as the first daughter and third child of John Whitehead and Countess Agathe Gobertina von Breunner-Enckevoirth. Her father, a British engineer who had been made a knight of the Order of Franz Joseph, was the son of Robert Whitehead, the eponym of the Whitehead torpedo. Her mother, an amateur architect and pianist, was a member of the Austrian and Hungarian nobility. Through her father, Whitehead was a niece of the diplomat Sir James Beethom Whitehead, who served as the British Minister to Serbia, and a first cousin of Sir Edgar Whitehead, who served as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia. Through her mother, she was the niece of Countess Marie von Breunner-Enckevoirth, the wife of Victor II, Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey, and the niece of Countess Eleonore von Breunner-Enckevoirth, the wife of Karl Maria Alexander, 9th Prince of Auersperg. Her maternal cousin, Princess Agathe of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, was the wife of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. Whitehead grew up at Villa Whitehead, a palatial home near the Adriatic Sea. Her family was closely linked with the Austrian imperial family and, shortly after her birth, Emperor Franz Joseph I visited the family's home and torpedo factory in Fiume. Fluent in English, German, and Italian, she was educated at home by tutors and was given piano, violin, and voice lessons. Her father died in 1902 from stomach cancer. From that time on, Whitehead's mother raised her and her five siblings and the management of the torpedo factory passed to a paternal relative. After the family spent a summer at Lake Zell in the Austria Alps, Whitehead's mother built Erlhof, a waterfront house which became the family's summer residence.