Leopold Loyka

Leopold Loyka (also spelt Leopold Lojka) (1885-1926) was the chauffeur of the car carrying Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the point of Ferdinand's assassination in Sarajevo in 1914. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,722283,00.html] Time Magazine Milestones (spelling: Lojka)]

Loyka was born in 1885 in the town of Znojmo in southern Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of the Czech Republic). He became a professional chauffeur in the service of Franz, Count Harrach, an Austro-Hungarian nobleman and close friend of heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Loyka accompanied his his employer and the Archduke on their trip to Sarajevo on June 28 1914 so as to serve as Ferdinand's chauffeur. Shortly after leaving the military barracks where Ferdinand had been inspecting the local Imperial garrison, the car was attacked by a Serb Black Hand terrorist, who threw a bomb at it. However, Loyka was able to swerve out of the way and the bomb bounced away, injuring several soldiers.

Despite protestations from his wife Sophie, Ferdinand decided to visit the injured soldiers in hospital. However, this was off the planned route, and as they left the hospital to head out of Sarajevo Loyka, unfamiliar with the new route, took a wrong turn down a backstreet. Realising his mistake, Loyka began to reverse out. However, it so happened that Black hand assassin Gavrilo Princip was sitting in a cafe on the street just as Ferdinand's car began to pull into it. Princip seized his chance and ran out of the cafe with his pistol. Spotting him, Loyka attempted to reverse faster, but his foot missed the accelerator pedal. As a consequence Princip shot and killed the Archduke and his wife.

After the assassination Loyka was given the task of sending three telegrams: one for the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, one for the German Emperor Wilhelm II, and one for the children of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He also served as a witness for the prosecution in the Black Hand terrorists' trial.

Loyka was later awarded 400,000 crowns by Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles I, which he used to buy an inn in Brunn in Czechoslovakia. Here he became an innkeeper, and would often show off his mementoes of the assassination- the bloodstained braces of Franz Ferdinand and a piece of golden bracelet from Sophie.

He died in Brunn in 1926. Since his death the role of chauffeur of Franz Ferdinand's car has often been erroneously attributed to a 'Franz Urban'.

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