Alice, Countess of Athlone

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Alice, Countess of Athlone

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone VA (nee Princess Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline of Albany) (born February 25, 1883 in Windsor Castle , Windsor , † January 3, 1981 in Kensington Palace , London ) was a member of the British royal family . She was Queen Victoria's longest-lived grandchild .

Life

Alice, Countess of Athlone with her children May and Rupert

Alice was born on February 25, 1883 at Windsor Castle as the eldest child of Leopold Georg, Duke of Albany , the youngest son of Queen Victoria, and his wife Helene von Waldeck-Pyrmont . She had only one brother, Charles , who later became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . The grandchild of a British monarch in the male line, she was a princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was addressed "Her Royal Highness". Her godparents included her grandmother Queen Victoria, the German Empress Augusta and King Wilhelm III. of the Netherlands .

On February 10, 1904, Alice married Prince Alexander von Teck (1874-1957), the brother of the future Queen Mary , the wife of Alice's cousin, the future King George V. She had inherited the hereditary disease hemophilia from her father, but carried the disease characteristics only recessive . As the carrier of this disease, she passed it on to her son. The couple had three children:

  • Lady May Helen Emma Cambridge (January 23, 1906 to May 29, 1994), married Lady Abel Smith,
  • Rupert Alexander George Cambridge, Viscount Trematon (August 24, 1907 to April 15, 1928),
  • Maurice Francis George (March 29, 1910 to September 14, 1910).
Earl and Countess of Athlone with Prime Minister Mackenzie King

By order of King George V, all members of the British royal family lost their German nobility titles in 1917. This was also true of Alice's husband, whom the king bestowed the title of Earl of Athlone . Since then she has been referred to as Her Royal Highness Alice, Countess of Athlone .

Alice performed various representational tasks for the respective king. In 1924 she went to South Africa with her husband , where he served as Governor General of the Union of South Africa until 1931 . The couple lived in Ottawa from 1940 to 1946 when her husband was Governor General of Canada . In particular during the Second World War , Princess Alice took on various honorary posts in connection with the use of female auxiliaries in the armed forces.

In 1950 Alice became the first female chancellor of the newly established University of the West Indies .

Alexander, 1st Earl of Athlone, died in London in 1957. Princess Alice lived at Kensington Palace until her death in 1981 . She died at the age of 97 years and 312 days; by then no descendant of a British monarch had grown older than her. Prince Philip , also a descendant of Queen Victoria , has held this record since April 19, 2019 . At the time of her death, she was the last living bearer of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert . She was buried in the Royal Burial Ground of Frogmore, Windsor .

Title, medal and coat of arms

Princess Alice
coat of arms

Title and salutation

  • 1883–1904: Her Royal Highness Princess Alice of Albany
  • 1904–1917: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexander of Teck
  • 1917: Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Lady Cambridge
  • 1917–1981: Her Royal Highness Princess Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone

medal

coat of arms

As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria in the male line, Princess Alice was entitled to bear the coat of arms of the United Kingdom . As is usual with women, it was not designed as a shield, but as a diamond ("lady's shield"). Until 1917 it carried the coat of arms of Saxony as a central shield .

Trivia

Web links

Commons : Alice, Countess of Athlone  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Heraldica - British Royalty cadency