Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester GCB GCVO GBE CI
(née Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29
October 2004) was the wife and then widow of Prince Henry, Duke of
Gloucester, the third son of George V and Mary of Teck.
The
daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, Scotland’s largest
landowner, her brothers Walter,
the 8th Duke, and William and her nephew John were all
Conservative MPs. She was sister-in-law to Edward VIII and George VI and
aunt to Elizabeth II. She was the mother of Prince William of
Gloucester, who died at age 30, and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
Her first cousin, Marian Louisa Montagu Douglas Scott, was the
grandmother of Sarah, Duchess of York, wife of Alice’s great-nephew,
Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
Princess Alice's niece, Princess
Alexandra, who was likewise born on Christmas Day, shares the name
Christabel in honour of their shared birth date.
Lady Alice was
born, in Montagu House, Whitehall, London, on Christmas Day 1901 as the
third daughter of John Montagu Douglas Scott, Duke of Buccleuch and
Queensberry, and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Bridgeman, daughter
of George Bridgeman, 4th Earl of Bradford. She was therefore a
descendant, in an unbroken male (though illegitimate) line, of King
Charles II. She spent much of her childhood in her family's country
homes: Boughton House in Northamptonshire, Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries
and Galloway, and Bowhill in the Scottish Borders. She attended the
independent St James's School for Girls, in West Malvern,
Worcestershire, and later travelled to France and Kenya.
In
August 1935, Lady Alice became engaged to Prince Henry, Duke of
Gloucester, the third son of King George V. They were married in a
private ceremony, in the Private Chapel, Buckingham Palace, on 6
November of that year. A much more elaborate wedding was originally
planned for Westminster Abbey; but after the new Duchess of Gloucester's
father died of cancer on 19 October 1935, and in consideration of the
King's own failing health, it was decided that the wedding should be
scaled down to a more private setting. Her bridemaids were her sister
the Lady Angela Montagu-Douglas-Scott, her nieces, the Lady Elizabeth
Montagu-Douglas-Scott, Miss Clare Phipps, Miss Anne Hawkins, her
husband's nieces Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose of York,
her cousin Miss Moyra Montagu-Douglas-Scott and her husband's cousin the
Lady Mary Cambridge.
Initially, the Duke and Duchess of
Gloucester lived in Aldershot, where the Duke was taking the Army staff
course. In 1935, the Duchess took a trip to open the new grounds of The
Lady Eleanor Holles School. The Duke of Gloucester left the army to take
on more public duties following the abdication of King Edward VIII in
December 1936. The couple received a grace and favour residence at York
House, St James's Palace, London and, in 1938, they purchased Barnwell
Manor in Northamptonshire.
The Duke and Duchess had two sons:
Prince
William of Gloucester (18 December 1941 – 28 August 1972)
Prince
Richard, Duke of Gloucester (born 26 August 1944)
The Duke and
Duchess of Gloucester travelled extensively to perform their royal
duties. During World War II, the Duchess worked with the Red Cross and
the Order of St John. She became head of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force
(WAAF) in 1939 as Senior Controller, changed to Air Commandant in 1940,
and appointed Air Chief Commandant on 4 March 1943, when she took over
as director until August 1944. Later she was promoted to Air Chief
Marshal in the Royal Air Force in 1990. She also served as deputy to
Queen Elizabeth, the consort of George VI, as Commandant-in-Chief of the
Nursing Corps. From 1945 to 1947, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
lived in Canberra, where the Duke was serving as Governor-General of
Australia. The Duchess of Gloucester served as Colonel-in-Chief or
deputy Colonel-in-Chief of a dozen regiments in the British Army,
including the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Northamptonshire
Regiment, the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own
Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire), the Royal Anglian Regiment,
the Royal Hussars, and the Royal Irish Rangers (27th Inniskilling);
also, the Royal Corps of Transport. She was also the Chancellor of the
University of Derby and Patron of the Girls' Day School Trust.
On
10 June 1974, Prince Henry died, and was succeeded as Duke of Gloucester
by their second son, Prince Richard (the couple's elder son, Prince
William, had been killed in an aeroplane crash in 1972). The Duke's
widow requested permission from her niece, the Queen, to use the title
and style HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester instead of HRH The
Dowager Duchess of Gloucester. The Queen allowed her aunt to adopt this
title, in part to avoid confusion with her daughter-in-law, the new
Duchess of Gloucester (formerly Birgitte Eva van Deurs). Princess Alice
apparently did not wish to be known as a Dowager Duchess and so followed
the example of her late sister-in-law, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent,
following the marriage of her elder son in June 1961. However, Princess
Marina was a princess of Greece and Denmark by birth, a title she did
not lose upon marriage. The de facto Dowager Duchess of Gloucester was
allowed to be known as Princess Alice as a courtesy from the Queen.
Although neither born nor created a princess by letters patent, the
Princess was entitled to style herself as a British princess due to her
recognised marriage to a prince who was the son of a monarch. Normally,
non-royal women who marry royal princes are styled "[her own Christian
name], Princess [husband's Christian name]"; only princesses by blood
are styled "Princess [her own Christian name]".
In 1975, Princess
Alice was the first woman to be appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Most
Honourable Order of the Bath. In 1981, she first published her memoirs
under the title The Memoirs of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. In
1991, she released a revised edition as Memories of Ninety Years.
In 1994, after the Gloucesters had to give up Barnwell Manor for
financial reasons, Alice moved from Barnwell to Kensington Palace, where
she lived with the current Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. In 1999, the
Duke issued a press release announcing that due to physical frailty, his
mother would no longer carry out public engagements outside the environs
of Kensington Palace. In December 2001, the Royal Family held a ceremony
to acknowledge Princess Alice's 100th birthday. This was Princess
Alice's last public appearance (as well as the last public appearance of
Princess Margaret, the Queen's younger sister, who died on 9 February
2002). On the death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at age 101 in
March 2002, Princess Alice became the oldest living member of the
British Royal Family.
On 21 August 2003, Princess Alice surpassed
The Queen Mother's record as the oldest person in the history of the
British Royal Family.
Princess Alice died on 29 October 2004 in
her sleep at Kensington Palace at age 102. Her funeral was held on 5
November 2004, at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and she was interred next
to her husband, Prince Henry, and her elder son, Prince William, in the
Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore. The Funeral was attended by Queen
Elizabeth II and other members of the British Royal Family.
A
memorial service was held at St Clement Danes on 2 February 2005, which
was attended by her son and his family and representatives of
organisations Princess Alice was involved in; the service was
co-ordinated by the Royal Air Force in respect of Princess Alice's role
as Commandant-in-Chief WRAF.
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