Pavlovna, became an army nurse. In August 1915, the Tsar granted Paul's wife, Olga, the title of Princess Paley with the style of Serene Highness, and their children also became Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Princesses Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna Paley. In the same month, Prince Vladimir Paley joined a regiment. Although he had been away from active service for many years and his health was frail, Grand Duke Paul begged his nephew, Tsar Nicholas II, to give him an active military appointment in the battle fields. By that time, Paul was, once again, one of the few members of the extended Romanov family on good terms with the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Through her intervention, Nicholas II placed Paul in command of the First Corps of the Imperial Guard in 1915. However, before he could assume his military appointment, Paul felt gravely ill with gall bladder troubled. It was feared that he had cancer and he spent the fall and the winter of 1915-1916 sick. It was only after he recovered many months later, in May 1916, that Grand Duke Paul, ignoring his doctor's advice, left to take command of the 1st Guards Corps. He served with the rank of General of Cavalry. After a difficult spell at the front under heavy enemy bombardment at the village of Sokoul, he was awarded a St George's Cross 4th class, one of the most coveted military decorations. Due to his bad health, the grand duke was moved, in September 1916, to a new appointment as inspector general of the Guard at the Tsar's headquarters and his son, Vladimir, was placed under his orders. In the autumn of 1916, Paul took a three-week holiday in Crimea with his wife and children. On his way back north, in November, he visited the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in Kiev. Maria Feodorovna and her son-in-law, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, enlisted Paul's help in order to persuade Nicholas II and his wife of the need for change and to get rid of Rasputin's damaging influence. Grand Duke Paul had an audience with the Tsar and Tsarina in December. He handled the issue with tact, but without success. Nevertheless, he was able to retain Nicholas II and Alexandra's confidence even after it was shaken with Paul's son Dmitri's involvement in Rasputin's murder in the early hours of . Paul, who was at Stavka with Nicholas II when