THE SON'S AND DAUGHTER OF KING GEORGE V AND PRINCES MARY - (Il)
In previous chapter we see Edward VIII And George VI. In this chapter we see Mary, Princess Royal and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.( 3rd and 4th children's). Remaining Prince George, Duke of Kent and Prince John we see in Next chapter.
3.Mary, Princess Royal
Introduction :
Name : Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary.
Father : George V.
Mother : Mary of Teck.
Born : Princess Mary of York
25 April 1897
York Cottage, Sandringham, Norfolk, England.
Died : 28 March 1965 (aged 67)
Harewood House, Yorkshire, England.
Burial : 1 April 1965
All Saints' Church, Harewood, Yorkshire.
Spouse : Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood.
Issue : 1.George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood.
2.Gerald Lascelles.
House : Windsor (from 1917)
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary; 25 April 1897 – 28 March 1965), was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sister of kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Queen Elizabeth II. In the First World War, she performed charity work in support of servicemen and their families. She married Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles (later the 6th Earl of Harewood), in 1922. Mary was given the title of Princess Royal in 1932. During the Second World War, she was Controller Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The Princess Royal and the Earl of Harewood had two sons, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, and The Honourable Gerald Lascelles.
Early life and education :
Princess Mary was born on 25 April 1897 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. She was the third child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father was the eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, while her mother was the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. She was named Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary, after her paternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria; her paternal grandmother, Alexandra, Princess of Wales; her maternal grandmother, Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck; and her great-aunt, Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, with whom she shared a birthday. She was known by the last of her Christian names, Mary. She was fifth in the line of succession at the time of her birth, superseded by her younger brothers, Prince Henry, Prince George, and Prince John.
She was baptised at St Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham on 7 June 1897 by William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York. Her godparents were: the Queen (her great-grandmother); the King of the Hellenes (her paternal great-uncle); the Dowager Empress of Russia (her paternal great-aunt); the Prince and Princess of Wales (her paternal grandparents); the Duchess of Teck (her maternal grandmother); Princess Victoria of Wales (her paternal aunt); and Prince Francis of Teck (her maternal uncle).Her grandfather King Edward VII ascended to the throne in 1901 when Mary was three years old.
Princess Mary was educated by governesses, but shared some lessons with her brothers, Prince Edward, Prince Albert, and Prince Henry. She became fluent in German and French, and developed a lifelong interest in horses and horse racing. Her first state appearance was at the coronation of her parents, King George V and Queen Mary at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911.
Charity work :
During World War I, Princess Mary visited hospitals and welfare organisations with her mother;assisting with projects to give comfort to British servicemen and assistance to their families. One of these projects was Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Fund, through which £100,000 worth of gifts was sent to all British soldiers and sailors for Christmas, 1914. The 2017 value of that investment was £11 million. She took an active role in promoting the Girl Guide movement, the VADs, and the Land Girls. In June 1918, following an announcement in The Gentlewoman, she began a nursing course at Great Ormond Street Hospital, working two days a week in the Alexandra Ward.
On 20 November 1918, Princess Mary became the first member of the royal family to visit France following the Armistice. She visited centres associated with Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps or Voluntary Aid Detachment Units, and hospitals with wounded soldiers.
Princess Mary's public duties reflected her concerns with nursing, the Girl Guide movement, and the Women's Services. In the period leading up to her marriage, girls and women in the British Empire called Mary and its variants (including Marie, May and Miriam) banded together to form "The Marys of the Empire," and donated money toward a wedding present.She presented this fund to the Girl Guides Association for the purchase of the estate of Foxlease, and following the exhibition of her wedding presents, she also contributed half the proceeds to the same cause, for upkeep, a total of £10,000, which enabled the project to go ahead.
She became honorary president of the British Girl Guide Association in 1920, a position she held until her death.She received the Silver Fish Award, Girl Guiding's highest adult honour, in recognition of her contribution to the movement. It was reported in July 2013 that British Pathé had discovered newsreel film from 1927 in which the ancestors of Catherine Middleton are, as Lord Mayors of Leeds, playing host to Princess Mary at the Young Women's Christian Association in Hunslet, Leeds; both Sir Charles Lupton and his brother Hugh Lupton, were the uncles of Olive Middleton, the Duchess's great grandmother. In 1921, the Princess became the first patron of the Not Forgotten Association, a position she held until her death in 1965. The charity's first Christmas Tea Party was organised by Mary and held at St James's Palace in 1921 when she invited 600 wounded servicemen for afternoon tea and the event has been held annually ever since.In 1926, Princess Mary became the commandant-in-chief of the British Red Cross Detachments.
In the 1920s, she was a patron of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.By the 1940s, Princess Mary was attending the opening nights and many of the festival's performances, as was her son, George, and his wife, the Countess of Harewood, née Marion Stein, a former concert pianist. George was a noted music critic whose career included the role of artistic director of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.
In 1931, she was appointed patron of the Yorkshire Ladies Council of Education. She was also patron of the Girls' Patriotic Union of Day Schools.
It was reported in July 1927, that at a garden party at the Headingley Cricket Ground, the Princess was served tea with members of the Middleton family, which numbers among its later members Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, with those present including her great-grandmother, Olive Middleton. The Princess and her son, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, were patrons of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra which had played at soirées at their home, Harewood House. Attending these concerts was the orchestra's co-founder, Richard Noël Middleton, who was on friendly terms with the Princess. Middleton's wife, Olive, was a member of the Princess's fundraising committee for the Leeds General Infirmary.Olive's first cousin was fellow committee member Elinor G. Lupton who reportedly launched the fund-raising appeal in 1933. The committee's Vice-Presidents included the Princess's sister-in-law, the Hon. Mrs Edward Lascelles, who served alongside Olive Middleton and her relative, Jessie Beatrice Kitson. Princess Mary became patron of the Leeds Infirmary in 1936.
Marriage and family :
On 28 February 1922, Princess Mary married Viscount Lascelles, the elder son of Henry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood, and Lady Florence Bridgeman, daughter of Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford of Weston Park. The bride was 24 years old, while the groom was 39.
Their wedding was held at Westminster Abbey, and attracted large crowds along the route to Buckingham Palace. The wedding was reported by Pathé News, including the appearance of the couple on the palace balcony. The ceremony was the first royal wedding to be covered in fashion magazines, including Vogue. Her wedding dress was created by Messrs Raville and combined "youthful simplicity with royal splendour". It was designed to reflect "Britain's position as ruler of a vast empire; emblematic lotus-flower motifs embroidered in India featured alongside a domestic, yet equally symbolic, trellis work of roses in pearls and crystal beads."The Princess refused to share details of her honeymoon with the press.It was the first royal occasion in which Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a friend of Princess Mary, participated, as one of the bridesmaids. She later married Mary's brother, Prince Albert, and became queen consort of the United Kingdom upon his accession in 1936.
◇The bride's attendants were :
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother)
Princess Maud, daughter of Louise, Princess Royal, and the bride's paternal first cousin
Lady Mary Cambridge, daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, and the bride's maternal first cousin
Lady May Cambridge, daughter of Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, and Princess Alice of Albany and the bride's maternal first cousin and paternal second cousin
Lady Diana Bridgeman, daughter of Orlando Bridgeman, 5th Earl of Bradford
Lady Mary Thynne, daughter of Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess of Bath
Lady Rachel Cavendish, daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire
Lady Doris Gordon-Lennox, daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 8th Duke of Richmond.
Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles had two sons:
George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (7 February 1923 – 11 July 2011); married, 1949, Marion Stein; had issue; divorced 1967; married, 1967, Patricia Elizabeth Tuckwell; had issue.
The Honourable Gerald Lascelles (21 August 1924 – 27 February 1998); married, 1952, Angela Dowding; had issue; divorced 1978; married Elizabeth Collingwood; had issue.
◇Family homes and interests :
The Princess and her husband had homes in London (Chesterfield House, Westminster) and in Yorkshire (first Goldsborough Hall, and later Harewood House). While at Goldsborough Hall, Princess Mary had internal alterations made by the architect Sydney Kitson, to suit the upbringing of her two children and instigated the development of formal planting of beech-hedge-lined long borders from the south terrace looking for a quarter of a mile down an avenue of lime trees. The limes were planted by her relatives as they visited the Hall throughout the 1920s, including her father, King George, and mother, Queen Mary.
After becoming the Countess of Harewood upon the death of her father-in-law, Princess Mary moved to Harewood House, and took a keen interest in the interior decoration and renovation of the Lascelles family seat. In farming pursuits, Princess Mary also became an expert in cattle breeding and was on the board of trustees of the Royal Agricultural Society of England of which her husband had been president.In December 2012, some of the Princess's belongings were sold in "Harewood: Collecting in the Royal Tradition", an auction organised by Christie's. The couple regularly rode with the Bramham Moor Hunt.
Princess Royal :
On 6 October 1929, Lord Lascelles, who had been created a Knight of the Garter upon his marriage, succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Harewood, Viscount Lascelles, and Baron Harewood. On 1 January 1932, George V declared that his only daughter should bear the title Princess Royal, succeeding her aunt Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife who had died a year earlier.
The Princess Royal was particularly close to her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, known as David to his close family, who subsequently became Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936. After the abdication crisis, she and her husband went to stay with the former Edward VIII, by then created Duke of Windsor, at Enzesfeld Castle near Vienna. Later, in November 1947, she allegedly declined to attend the wedding of her niece, Princess Elizabeth, to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten as the Duke of Windsor had not been invited. She gave ill health as the official reason for her non-attendance. In March 1953 she cut short her tour of the West Indies and before returning to London, made a surprise diversion to New York, where she met with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.She posed for photographs with them before she and the duke boarded the ship they travelled on to visit their ailing mother, Queen Mary.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Princess Royal became chief controller and later controller commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, renamed the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1949.In that capacity, she travelled across the country, visiting its units, as well as wartime canteens and other welfare organisations.[46] After the death in 1942 of her younger brother, the Duke of Kent, she became the president of Papworth Hospital. The Princess Royal became air chief commandant of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service in 1950, and received the honorary rank of general in the British Army in 1956.Also, in 1949, the 10th Gurkha Rifles were renamed the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles in her honour.
After her husband's death in 1947, the Princess Royal lived at Harewood House with her elder son and his family. She became the chancellor of the University of Leeds in 1951, and continued to carry out official duties at home and abroad. She attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953, and later represented the Queen at the independence celebrations of Trinidad and Tobago in 1962, and Zambia in 1964. One of her last official engagements was to represent the Queen at the funeral of Queen Louise of Sweden in early March 1965. The Princess Royal visited her brother, the Duke of Windsor, at the London Clinic in March 1965, while he recovered from recent eye surgery. The Princess also met his wife, the Duchess of Windsor, one of the Duchess's few meetings with her husband's immediate family to take place.
Honours and Arms :
▪British
CI: Companion of the Crown of India, 25 April 1919
GCStJ: Dame Grand Cross of St John of Jerusalem, 12 May 1926
GBE: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, 3 June 1927
GCVO: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 11 May 1937
TD: Territorial Decoration, 1951
RRC: Member (First Class) of the Royal Red Cross, 1953
CD: Canadian Forces Decoration
Royal Family Order of Edward VII
Royal Family Order of King George V
Royal Family Order of King George VI
Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
▪Foreign
Spain: Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa, 12 July 1926
▪Namesakes
LMS Princess Royal Class
▪Freedom of the City
1952: Freeman of the City of York
Honorary military appointmentsEdit
▪Australian
1937–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals
▪British
1918: Colonel-in-Chief, of The Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment)
1935: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Signal Corps
1947: Colonel-in-Chief, of the West Yorkshire Regiment
1958: amalgamated, with the East Yorkshire Regiment (The Duke of York's Own), to form the Prince of Wales' Own Yorkshire Regiment
1950: Air Chief Commandant of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service
▪Canadian
1930–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's)
1940–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
1963-1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment
▪New Zealand
1940–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals
▪India
1936–1950: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Indian Corps of Signals.
◇Arms :
In 1931, Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, was awarded her own personal arms, being the royal arms, differenced by a label argent of three points, each bearing a cross gules.
Death and legacy :
On 28 March 1965 the Princess Royal suffered a fatal heart attack during a walk with her elder son, Lord Harewood, and his children in the grounds of the Harewood House estate. She was 67 years old. She was buried in the Lascelles family vault at All Saints' Church, Harewood, after a private family funeral at York Minster. A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey, London.
Six British monarchs reigned during Princess Mary's lifetime: Victoria (her great-grandmother), Edward VII (her grandfather), George V (her father), Edward VIII and George VI (her brothers) and Elizabeth II (her niece). She is typically remembered as an uncontroversial figure of the royal family. The Princess was portrayed by Kate Phillips in Downton Abbey (2019).
During the British Mandate of Palestine, a major street in Jerusalem next to the Old City was called Princess Mary Street.After the creation of Israel, the street name was changed to "Queen Shlomzion Street", to commemorate the Jewish queen.
4.Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
Introduction :
In office : 30 January 1945 – 11 March 1947.
Predecessor :The Lord Gowrie.
Successor : Sir William McKell.
Monarch : George VI.
Prime ministers : John Curtin.
Frank Forde.
Ben Chifley.
Name : Henry William Frederick Albert.
Father : George V.
Mother : Mary of Teck.
Born : Prince Henry of York
31 March 1900
York Cottage, Sandringham.
Died : 10 June 1974 (aged 74)
Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire.
Burial : 14 June 1974
Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.
Spouse : Prince William of Gloucester.
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
House : Windsor
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Allegiance : United Kingdom.
Service/branch : British Army.
Years of active service : 1919–1937.
Rank : Field Marshal.
Unit : King's Royal Rifle Corps
10th Royal Hussars
British Expeditionary Force
Battles/wars : Second World War
Battle of France
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, KG, KT, KP, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GCStJ, PC, ADC (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was the third son and fourth child of King George V and Queen Mary. He served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947, the only member of the British royal family to hold the post.
Henry was the first son of a British monarch to be educated at school, where he excelled at sports, and went on to attend Eton College, after which he was commissioned in the 10th Royal Hussars, a regiment he hoped to command. However, his military career was frequently interrupted by royal duties, and he was nicknamed "the unknown soldier". While big-game shooting in Kenya, he met the future pilot Beryl Markham, with whom he became romantically involved. The court put pressure on him to end the relationship, but he had to pay regular hush-money to avert a public scandal. In 1935, also under parental pressure, he married Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, with whom he had two sons, Princes William and Richard.
From 1939 to 1940, Henry served in France as a liaison officer to Lord Gort. He performed military and diplomatic duties during the rest of the war, then in 1945 was appointed as Australia's governor-general at the request of Prime Minister John Curtin. The post had originally been offered to his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, who died in an air crash. Henry attended the coronation of his niece Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and carried out several overseas tours, often accompanied by his wife. From 1965, he became incapacitated by a number of strokes. Upon his death, he was succeeded as the Duke of Gloucester by his only living son, Richard.
Prince Henry was the last surviving child of King George V and Queen Mary. His widow, who died at the age of 102, became the longest-lived ever member of the British royal family.
Early life :
Prince Henry was born on 31 March 1900, at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was the Duke of York (later King George V), the eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). His mother was the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), the only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was fifth in the line of succession to the throne, behind his grandfather, father and two elder brothers.
He was baptised at the private chapel of Windsor Castle on 17 May 1900, by Randall Thomas Davidson, Bishop of Winchester, and his godparents were: Queen Victoria (his great-grandmother); the German Emperor (his first cousin once removed, for whom Prince Albert of Prussia stood proxy); Princess Beatrice of Battenberg (his paternal great-aunt); the Duchess of Cumberland (his paternal great-aunt, whose sister, his grandmother the Princess of Wales represented her); Prince George of Greece (his first cousin once removed, for whom Prince Henry's paternal grandfather the Prince of Wales stood proxy); Princess Carl of Denmark (his paternal aunt, for whom her sister Princess Victoria of Wales stood proxy); Prince Alexander of Teck (his maternal uncle, for whom Prince Henry's great-uncle the Duke of Cambridge stood proxy); and Field Marshal The Earl Roberts (for whom General Sir Dighton Probyn stood proxy).He was informally known to his family as Harry.
Childhood and education :
As a young boy, Prince Henry suffered from ill health very much like his older brother Albert. He also had knocked knees, and had to wear painful leg splints. He was an extremely nervous child, and was often victim to spontaneous fits of crying or giggling, and also like his brother, Henry had a combination of speech disorders. They both had rhotacism, which prevented them from pronouncing the sound r, but while Albert's pronunciation was slightly reminiscent of the "French r", Henry was completely unable to pronounce it, causing the intended r to sound like On top of this, Henry also had a nasal lisp and an unusually high-pitched tone, resulting in a very distinctive voice.
By 1909, Henry's poor health had become a serious concern for his parents. He was very small for his age and was prone to get very aggressive colds. "You must remember that he is rather fragile and must be treated differently to his two elder brothers who are more robust", wrote Prince George to Henry's tutor, Henry Peter Hansell.
On 6 May 1910, Prince George ascended the throne as George V, and Henry became the third in line to the throne. The King was persuaded by Hansell that it would be good for Henry's character to attend school, where he could interact with boys his age. The King, having previously rejected this proposition for his two elder sons, agreed on the basis that it would help him "behave like a boy and not like a little child". Prince Henry thus became the first son of a British monarch to attend school. After three days at St Peter's Court in Broadstairs as a day boy, Hansell, noticing he liked it, asked the King to send him as a boarder, to which he agreed.
Henry spent three years at St Peter's Court. Academically, he was not very bright, although he did show a particular aptitude in mathematics, Henry's sole interest became sports, particularly cricket and football. "All you write about is your everlasting football of which I am heartily sick", wrote his mother, answering a fully detailed letter from Henry about a match.
In September 1913, Henry started at Eton College. During the First World War, Crown Prince Leopold of Belgium, later Leopold III, was a member of his house (Mr Lubbock's). His studies did not improve, but his nerves and disposition did. He made friends through his enthusiasm for sports, and his masters were very pleased with him, noting in his report that he was "thoroughly willing, cheerful, modest & obedient". To his father, these values were the most important, having no time or interest in what he called "intellectuals".
By the time he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1919 with his brother Albert, Henry had outgrown all his brothers, both in height and size, and enjoyed very good health. Their stay at Cambridge lasted just one year and was very uneventful for both of them, as they were not allowed to live in college with the other undergraduates, due to their father's fear of their mixing with undesirable company.
Military career :
Unlike his brothers, Prince Henry joined the Army rather than the Royal Navy. He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1919,and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps on 16 July 1919.On 16 July 1921 he was promoted to lieutenant in the 10th Royal Hussars,with whom he continued to serve. Though he desired to serve in more active roles as a soldier, his position as a senior member of the royal family effectively ruled out any such options. He retained an interest in sport and The Cricketer reported in August 1921 that the touring Philadelphians had had the honour of being presented to Prince Henry at The Oval.
Prince Henry was promoted to captain on 11 May 1927, and was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to his father on 2 August 1929. On 3 March 1931, he was appointed a staff captain and was seconded for service with the 2nd Cavalry Brigade. He was brevetted to major on 2 August 1934,and upon his father's Silver Jubilee the following May, was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Gloucestershire Regiment.On 6 July 1935, he was promoted to the substantive rank of major, his final rank as an actively serving officer.On 23 June 1936, he was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to his eldest brother, Edward VIII.
Following his brother's abdication and the accession of his brother the Duke of York as George VI, Prince Henry was effectively retired from active duty, and received a ceremonial promotion to major-general on 1 January 1937, skipping three ranks. He continued to serve as a personal aide-de-camp to the new King, receiving this appointment on 1 February.On 12 March, he received the colonelcy of his former regiment, the 10th Royal Hussars, along with the colonelcies of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Gordon Highlanders.On 28 May, he received an honorary appointment as a captain in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), followed by his appointment on 10 November to the honorary colonelcies of the Ceylon Planters' Rifle Corps and the Ceylon Light Infantry (now the Sri Lanka Light Infantry).
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the British Expeditionary Force, and was appointed as a Chief Liaison Officer on 4 September 1939.In January 1940, he was appointed to the colonelcies of the Ulster Anti-Aircraft Regiments, the Royal Artillery and the Territorial Army.He was slightly wounded in 1940 when his staff car was attacked from the air.In August 1940, he was appointed Chief Liaison Officer, GHQ Home Forces.He also became second-in-command of the 20th Armoured Brigade that year, and was promoted to lieutenant-general on 17 September 1941. On 27 October 1944, he was promoted to the rank of full general.
He was appointed a Field Marshal in 1955 and a Marshal of the Royal Air Force in 1958.
Duke of Gloucester :
On 31 March 1928, his father created him Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster, and Baron Culloden, three titles that linked him with three parts of the United Kingdom, namely England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Prince Henry visited Canada in 1928.
Before his marriage, Prince Henry's greatest ambition was to someday command his regiment, the 10th Royal Hussars, or at least spend as much time in the army as possible. Although he was a capable soldier, as the King's son he was prevented from joining his regiment abroad, and this meant he was generally seen as an outsider to his fellow officers. To his increasing despair, he had to fulfill the many royal duties his father assigned him.
In September 1928, Henry left England with his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, to shoot big game in Africa. The brothers parted in Nairobi, where Henry was to stay for a while. There, he was entertained by Mansfield Markham and his wife Beryl Markham. Beryl and Henry soon started an affair (though sources differ over when the affair started; many say it was not until her visit to England). In November, the brothers were recalled to England due to their father's worsening health, and soon after Beryl returned too. At the Grosvenor Hotel, close to Buckingham Palace, the affair continued with Prince Henry openly hosting parties with her in her suite and drinking too much.
The affair, widely known by the London society, shocked the Queen, to the delight of the Prince of Wales who remarked that "for once, Queen Mary's blue-eyed boy was in trouble instead of himself". The King stepped in, thinking that keeping Henry busy would be the best way to end the affair, as would keeping him from drinking too much, too often. That year, he arranged a series of tours for his son to undertake.
In 1929, he went to Japan to confer the Garter on the Emperor, and a year later he attended the coronation of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. In 1934 George V made him a Knight of St Patrick, Ireland's chivalric order. It was the second to last time this order was awarded (the last appointment being the Duke of York, later George VI, in 1936); at the time of his death, the Duke of Gloucester was the only remaining knight. In 1934, he went to Australia and New Zealand where the people received him with overwhelming enthusiasm that one journalist wrote, "(amounted) to something very near adoration".
Marriage and family :
When he returned from his trip to Japan in 1929, the affair with Markham ended. Her husband wanted a divorce and threatened to disclose Prince Henry's private letters to his wife if he did not "take care of Beryl". The Duke and Beryl never met again, although she did write to him when he visited Kenya in 1950 with his wife, but he did not write back. Prince Henry's solicitors paid out an annuity until her death in 1985.
After his tour of Australia and New Zealand, and pressured by his parents, Prince Henry decided it was time to settle down and proposed to Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, sister of one of Henry's best friends Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott. The proposal, wrote Lady Alice many years later, was not at all romantic as "it was not his way", instead he just "mumbled it as we were on a walk one day".They were married on 6 November 1935. The marriage was originally planned to take place at Westminster Abbey, but was moved to the more modest Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace due to the death of Lady Alice's father, on 19 October 1935, barely a fortnight before the wedding. After suffering two miscarriages,the Duchess of Gloucester gave birth to two sons:
Prince William of Gloucester (18 December 1941 – 28 August 1972)
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (born 26 August 1944). He married a Danish commoner, Birgitte van Deurs, on 8 July 1972. The couple later had three children.
The couple lived first at the Royal Pavilion in Aldershot, near the barracks of the Duke's regiment. "It was a very simple cabin" recalled the Duchess of Gloucester, and "the only royal thing about it was my husband's presence". After his father's death, the Duke bought Barnwell Manor in 1938. As their London seat, they were given York House in St James's Palace.
Abdication of Edward VIII :
In December 1936, Henry's brother Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson. His brother, Prince Albert, ascended the throne as King George VI. Although third in line to the throne, following his two nieces Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, Henry became the first adult in line, meaning he would act as regent if anything were to happen to the King before Princess Elizabeth came of age on 21 April 1944, her 18th birthday.Because of this, Prince Henry could not leave the UK at the same time as the King. Furthermore, he and his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, had to increase their royal engagements considerably to support the new King.
Edward VIII, who became Duke of Windsor after abdicating, recalled that it was Henry who reacted least to the news of his abdication. The brothers had never been close and, apart from horses, they had not much in common. But Edward did admit regretting the implications the abdication would have on "The Unknown Soldier", a nickname he teasingly used to refer to Henry, owing to his low profile.
The abrupt change in Prince Henry's somewhat carefree life up to that point was made clear by the new King on the very first evening of his reign. "If you two think that, now that I have taken this new job on, you can go on behaving just as you like, in the same old way, you are very much mistaken! You two have to pull yourselves together", the King warned his two younger brothers at dinner.
Although the Duke of Gloucester supported his brother, and later his niece, tirelessly and dutifully, he had a fondness for whisky. On one occasion, Queen Mary wrote to the Duchess suggesting that if they were planning to visit, the Duke should bring his own supply of whisky, "as we have not got much left, and it is so expensive". Even Noble Frankland, who wrote the Duke's biography after his death at the request and under the supervision of the Duchess, wrote that: "He did not eschew a glass of whisky ... or the occasional blasphemous oath."
King George VI had great affection for his younger brother. Circumstances had made them closer following the abdication, and the King trusted Prince Henry with important matters, which he dutifully undertook. Sometimes, though, the organised King found his brother's less systematic manner irritating. On one occasion after a day of shooting at Balmoral Castle, the King found a mistake on his shot-game record, where there seemed to be a pair of grouse missing. A member of staff suggested that the King call and ask the Duke of Gloucester, who was staying at Birkhall. When the Duke confirmed he had taken the birds, the King's gruff warning to his brother that he should never again take birds without telling him surprised the member of staff.
Second World War :
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the Duke of Gloucester, as Chief Liaison Officer to Lord Gort, spent almost the entire first year of the war in France. Besides boosting the troops' morale, he was useful as a first-hand witness of the situation; he reported to government officials and to the King, to whom he continually wrote detailed and objective accounts of what was happening. Always eager to get involved, the Duke often found himself in dangerous situations, but did not seem overly worried. "Motoring about is not nice as many villages are being bombed," he wrote to his wife in his usual straightforward and dismissive manner. The Duke's two narrowest escapes both came in May 1940.
Having known King Leopold III of Belgium from school days, the Duke wanted to meet him personally to offer support after rumours began circulating that Belgium would surrender to Germany. On 14 May, he and his brother-in-law, Lord William Scott, drove from Hotel Univers in Arras into Belgium to see the King of the Belgians at a secret location. That night, Hotel Univers was bombed, resulting in several deaths, including those staying in the rooms next to the Duke's. The Duke wrote to his brother that King Leopold was "very depressed". As the Duke and Lord William Scott drove back, they were caught up in heavy enemy bombing in Tournai, where their car caught fire. They managed to get out and dive into an alleyway, although not unscathed as the Duke needed medical attention for a profusely bleeding wound.
Although generally optimistic, Prince Henry did sometimes suffer from bouts of depression during his service in 1940, especially at the end of his occasional leaves. "My beloved Alice, I did hate leaving you yesterday so very much that I could hardly keep a straight face", he wrote to his wife after reporting back. The strains of living at the French front also diminished his resolve at times: "I think I hate this country and war more than ever... it is such an awful waste of everything," he told the Duchess.
In June, after the fall of Dunkirk, the Duke was ordered back to England by an embarrassed General Headquarters, which had not been able to assure the King's brother's safety. "Wherever I went or had been, I was bombed" the Duke explained to his mother, amused.
In early 1942 the King arranged a four-month-long military and diplomatic mission for the Duke to the Middle East, India, and East Africa. The mission came just after Prince Henry had become a father for the first time, and it was considered a dangerous trip, as the Germans were rapidly advancing toward some of the territories the Duke would visit. The King even wrote to his sister-in-law that he would act as guardian of the newly born Prince William if anything should happen to his brother.
After Prince Henry's younger brother, the Duke of Kent, died in a plane crash in Scotland in August 1942, it was decided that the Duke of Gloucester would not be sent on any further missions that could prove dangerous.
Governor-General of Australia :
In late 1944 the Duke was unexpectedly appointed Governor-General of Australia[1] after the death in 1942 of his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, who had previously been offered the position.
The Duke had made a successful visit to Australia in 1934. Because the Duke was shy, he sometimes appeared stiff and formal, but he and the Duchess travelled widely in Australia using his own plane during their time in office. When Prime Minister Curtin died in 1945, the Duke appointed Frank Forde as prime minister.
Gloucester left Australia in March 1947, after two years in the post, due to the need to act as Senior Counsellor of State during a visit by George VI and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to South Africa.As a parting gift, he left his own plane for use by the government and people of Australia.
Later life :
In May 1949, May 1961, May 1962, and May 1963, the Duke served in the office of Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which temporarily afforded him precedence in Scotland immediately below the King and Queen.
The Duke attended the coronation of his niece Elizabeth II in 1953. Both the Duke and Duchess carried out royal engagements, including several overseas tours. In 1954 the Duke served as the Treasurer of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. He suffered a series of strokes in later years; his first was in 1965 while he and his wife, Alice, were returning from Sir Winston Churchill's funeral ceremony in their vehicle, which resulted in a car crash.This, together with later strokes, left him dependent on a wheelchair, and he was unable to speak in his last remaining years. His last public appearance was at the unveiling of Queen Mary's plaque at Marlborough House in 1967, where he appeared weak and considerably older than the Duke of Windsor. By 1972, he was too ill to attend the funeral of the Duke of Windsor in May or the wedding of his younger son, Prince Richard, in July. In August, the Duke's elder son, Prince William, died in a plane crash; by that point, he was in such poor health that his wife hesitated about whether to tell him. She later admitted in her memoirs that she did not, but that he may have learned of their son's death from television coverage.
Titles, styles, honours and arms :
◇Titles and styles :
1900–1901: His Royal Highness Prince Henry of York.
1901: His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Cornwall and York
1901–1910: His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales
1910–1928: His Royal Highness The Prince Henry
1928–1974: His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester.
◇Honours :
KG: Knight of the Order of the Garter (1921)
KT: Knight of the Order of the Thistle (1933)
KP: Knight of the Order of St Patrick (1934)
GCB: Great Master and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1942)
GCMG: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1935)
GCVO: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1922)
GCStJ: Grand Prior of the Order of St John (1939)
ADC: Personal aide-de-camp (1929)
Royal Victorian Chain (1932)
Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (1921); Collar (1929)
Knight of the Order of the Elephant (24 June 1924)
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (May 1927)
Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri (17 July 1939)
Knight of the Order of the Seraphim (8 June 1956)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (9 May 1958).
◇Military :
Colonel in Chief, Gloucestershire Regiment
Colonel in Chief, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Colonel, Ceylon Light Infantry (1937)
Colonel, Scots Guards (1937)
Colonel in Chief, Royal Army Service Corps
Colonel in Chief, Royal Corps of Transport.
◇Arms :
In 1921, Prince Henry was granted a personal coat of arms, being the royal arms, differenced by a label argent of three points, the centre bearing a lion rampant gules, and the outer points crosses gules.
Death :
He died on 10 June 1974 at the age of 74. He was the last surviving child of King George V and Queen Mary. His body was buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.
His second son, Prince Richard, inherited the title of Duke of Gloucester. The Duke's widow, Alice, received permission from Queen Elizabeth II to be styled Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, to distinguish herself from Prince Richard's wife. She survived until 2004, becoming the longest-lived member of the British royal family in history.
End of 3rd chapter...