The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Sunday 7 November 2004

End of an Era

The passing of a beloved relative is always sad, but there is something especially poignant about the death of the last member of a generation in a family.  With the death this week of HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, at the age of almost 103, the Queen lost the last of her aunts and uncles.  Because the late Queen Mother was the second-youngest of her large family, the Queen’s maternal aunts and uncles died some time ago.  In fact, the Queen Mother outlived most of her nephews and nieces as well.  Two of the Queen Mother’s brothers died in the First World War, a conflict that faded into history long ago. 

Princess Alice also was the last of King George V’s children and their spouses to die.  I just purchased the DVD of “The Lost Prince,” a recent BBC production about the short life of Prince John, the disabled youngest child of George V and Queen Mary.  It is set in the Edwardian era, when the royal families of Europe were at a peak of wealth and power before the First World War.  The idea that this long-dead prince was the brother-in-law of the woman laid to rest at Windsor on Friday is remarkable.  So is the thought that Princess Alice was also the sister-in-law of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  The Duchess of Gloucester had already married into the royal family when the Abdication Crisis rocked the throne almost seventy years ago, and she was 34 at the time of her marriage.

Princess Alice was born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott, a daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch, on Christmas Day 1901.  Her father owned huge estates in Scotland and five stately homes.  He had footmen who still wore livery and powdered their hair to serve at dinner.  Lady Alice’s background was very much like that of the late Queen Mother, but they had very different personalities and interests and seem to have been cordially distant.  Unlike most aristocratic young women of the time, Lady Alice was very independent and was able to travel alone to distant parts of the world.  She had an uncle who lived in Kenya, and spent a good deal of time there starting in 1929, as well as traveling elsewhere in Africa.  (Author Theo Aronson wrote that her African photo albums were “full of pictures of a wildly attractive young man.”) She also visited India and even traveled illegally to Afghanistan in disguise.  

She saw an opportunity to serve her country when Prince Henry fell in love with her after her return to Britain.  He was a rather quiet and dull man, particularly compared to his glamorous brothers, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Kent.  The Queen, now a matriarch in her late seventies, was a little girl when she was an attendant at the Gloucesters’ wedding in 1935.  After the Abdication, the Duke of Gloucester gave up his career in the Army to support George VI by performing royal duties.  During World War II the Duchess took an active role, including being head of the Women’s Air Force, and gave birth to two sons, William and Richard.  In 1945 the Duke became Governor General of Australia, where the Duchess also had an active role.

During the years after their return in 1947, the Gloucesters lived a quiet life of royal duties. They lived at York House in St. James' Palace (recently the home of the Prince of Wales) and at Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire, where the Duchess was an enthusiastic gardener. In 1972 their elder son William died when the plane he was piloting crashed. The Duke's health declined and he died less than two years later.

The Dowager Duchess of Gloucester then became known as HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, to avoid confusion with her daughter-in-law.  This indicates that princesses by marriage may be known as “Princess” and their first names.  Officially this style is reserved for princesses by blood, and some royal commentators used to remark that the late Princess of Wales should not be referred to as “Princess Diana.”  According to author Theo Aronson, Princess Alice’s change of title particularly annoyed Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, Queen Victoria’s last surviving grandchild, who was still alive at the time. 

Princess Alice spent the next twenty years living with her son and his family at Kensington Palace and Barnwell Manor, and continued to perform some royal duties.  She also published her memoirs, first before 1980 and then in 1991 as Memories of Ninety Years, now a collectors’ item.   In 1994 financial pressures forced the Gloucesters to give up Barnwell Manor.  During the past decade, Princess Alice understandably was seen less in public.  The Duke of Gloucester announced in 2001 that Princess Alice would no longer make public appearances.  In December 2001 the royal family held a ceremony to acknowledge Princess Alice’s centennial birthday, the second royal centennial birthday celebration held that year.  How long will it be until the royal family has two members aged over 100 again?  A few months after the Queen Mother’s death Princess Alice surpassed her age at death and became the longest-lived member of the British royal family ever.  She died in her sleep at Kensington Palace on October 29, 2004. 

Sources: www.royal.gov.uk; Theo Aronson, Royal Subjects (2001).

- Margaret Weatherford