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| Princess Alexandra | |
|---|---|
| Princess Arthur of Connaught Duchess of Fife | |
 Photograph, 1910s | |
| Born | Lady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff (1891-05-17)17 May 1891 East Sheen Lodge,Richmond-upon-Thames,Surrey, England |
| Died | 26 February 1959(1959-02-26) (aged 67) St John's Wood, London, England |
| Burial | 3 March 1959 St Ninian's Chapel, Braemar, Scotland |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn |
| Father | Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife |
| Mother | Louise, Princess Royal |
Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife (bornLady Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise Duff; 17 May 1891 – 26 February 1959), known asPrincess Arthur of Connaught after her marriage, was the eldest surviving grandchild ofEdward VII and also the first cousin ofEdward VIII andGeorge VI. Alexandra and her younger sister,Maud, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title ofPrincess and the style ofHighness.[1][2]
Alexandra's father wasAlexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. Having succeeded his father as the 6thEarl Fife, he was elevated toDuke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff in thePeerage of the United Kingdom on his marriage in 1889 toPrincess Louise of Wales, the eldest daughter of the futureEdward VII.[3] Princess Louise accordingly became the Duchess of Fife,[4] and succeeded as the head of manyScottish Feudal Baronies, includingMacDuff, named forJames Duff, 2nd Earl Fife.[5]
Alexandra was born atEast Sheen Lodge,Richmond,Surrey, on 17 May 1891.[6] After ten years of marriage and the birth in 1893 of Alexandra's younger sisterMaud, no more children would be born to Alexandra's parents and the dukedom and marquessate of Fife were headed toward extinction since only a male heir could inherit those titles. On 24 April 1900,Queen Victoria granted Alexander Duff a second dukedom of Fife, along with the earldom of Macduff, stipulating by special remainder that these two titles would jointly devolve, in default of sons born to him and the Queen's granddaughter, upon their daughters in order of seniority of birth, and upon their respectiveagnatic male descendants in the same order.[4] After her father's death in 1912, therefore, she inherited theDukedom of Fife in her own right.[6]
Although Alexandra was born fifth inline of succession to the British throne, she was not entitled to the title of "Princess" or the style of "Her Royal Highness" because she was a female-line granddaughter of the reigning monarch. Instead, as the daughter of a duke, she was styled Lady Alexandra Duff.[7] Uniquely among British royals, Alexandra and her sister were descended from bothKing William IV —through his mistress,Dorothea Jordan—and from his niece,Queen Victoria, who inherited the throne due to William IV's lack of legitimate heirs.[citation needed]
She was baptised at theChapel Royal, St James's Palace on 29 June 1891 by theArchbishop of Canterbury,Edward White Benson. Her godparents were Queen Victoria and the Prince andPrincess of Wales.[8]
On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII declared his eldest daughterPrincess Royal.[4] He further orderedGarter King of Arms to gazette Lady Alexandra Duff and her sister Lady Maud Duff with the style and attribute ofHighness and the style of Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names, with precedence immediately after all members of theBritish royal family bearing the style ofRoyal Highness.[4] From that point,Her Highness Princess Alexandra held her title and rank, not from her ducal father, but from the decree issued by will of the sovereign (her maternal grandfather).
In August 1910, Alexandra became secretly engaged to her first cousin once removed,Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, a son of KingGeorge I of Greece, the brother of her maternal grandmotherQueen Alexandra.[6] The engagement was terminated when their disapproving parents learned of the liaison and forbade the union.
In November 1911, Alexandra and her family were travelling by boat to a winter holiday inEgypt when their liner, the P&O'sSSDelhi, ran aground ashore atCape Spartel in fog and heavy seas. The passengers were rescued, but the rescue boat also sank. Alexandra was struck by a wave in the face and later wrote that she felt the water rush up her nose and swallowed it in gulps. She was rescued by a doctor who pulled her onto the beach.[6] Her sister and mother also nearly died and her father,Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, subsequently died as a result of his injuries a few weeks later atAswan.
In 1910, she was briefly engaged toPrince Christopher of Greece, her first cousin, once removed.[9] (Alexandra's mother,Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, was a daughter ofQueen Alexandra, herself an older sister ofGeorge I of Greece, Christopher's father). The engagement was terminated when her furious father learned of the liaison.
On 15 October 1913, Princess Alexandramarried her first cousin, once removed,[10]Prince Arthur of Connaught at theChapel Royal,St. James's Palace, London.[11]
The bride's attendants were:[12]
Prince Arthur of Connaught was the only son ofthe Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son ofQueen Victoria and thus a younger brother of her maternal grandfather, King Edward VII.
After their marriage, Alexandra was referred to asHRH Princess Arthur of Connaught, in accordance with the tradition that a wife normally shares the title and style of her husband.
Following their marriage the couple initially lived at54 Mount Street, Mayfair, which Prince Arthur reportedly leased fromRobert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth.[13][14] They continued to occupy 54 Mount Street until September 1916, when they took a new London residence at No. 17Hill Street, Mayfair.[15][16] By January 1920 they were residing at No. 42Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair.[17] Later in the same year they moved to 41Belgrave Square, which Prince Arthur had reportedly purchased in 1920.[18] 41 Belgrave Square continued to be their London residence until Prince Arthur's death in 1938; the house was subsequently sold to Mrs Edward Baron in 1939.[19]
In November 1938 Princess Alexandra purchased a newly-built house at 64 Avenue Road,St John's Wood, London,[20] where she continued to live until her death.[6][21][22]
World War I gave to Princess Arthur an opportunity to embrace her vocation of nursing in which she subsequently made a successful career. In 1915 she joined the staff ofSt. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, as a full-time nurse and worked in this capacity until the armistice. After the war she continued her training at St. Mary's, becoming astate registered nurse in 1919. She was awarded a first prize for a paper oneclampsia.[6] Princess Arthur also practised atQueen Charlotte's Hospital, specialising in gynaecology, where she received a certificate of merit. Throughout these years Princess Arthur increasingly impressed her superiors by her technical skill and practical efficiency.
When her husband was appointedgovernor-general of theUnion of South Africa in 1920, Princess Arthur accompanied him and shared in his popularity. Her tact and friendliness made her friends among the South Africans, who also admired the interest she displayed in hospitals, child welfare, and maternity work throughout the Union. To these subjects she brought her personal knowledge and experience, which enabled her to make effective and valuable suggestions. Despite this, she found life in South Africa restricting.[6]
On her return to London in 1923, Princess Arthur resumed her nursing career atUniversity College Hospital, where she was known asNurse Marjorie, and subsequently atCharing Cross Hospital. At this time she specialised in surgery and worked as a theatre sister. She performed minor operations herself, such as an amputation of a patient's thumb.[6] Her services to the nursing profession were recognized in July 1925, when she was awarded the badge of theRoyal Red Cross byGeorge V.
The outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939 afforded Princess Arthur further scope for her nursing abilities. She refused the offer of a post as matron of a hospital in the country, preferring to become sister-in-charge of the casualty clearing station of the Second British General Hospital set up to treat the troops retreating from Dunkirk. Shortly thereafter, she opened the Fife Nursing Home in Bentinck Street which she personally equipped, financed, and administered as matron for ten years.[citation needed]
On 26 April 1943 her only child,Alastair, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, died unexpectedly (and in ill-defined circumstances) whilst staying atRideau Hall inOttawa with his relative the Governor-General of Canada, theEarl of Athlone.[23]
In 1949 therheumatoid arthritis, from which Princess Arthur had suffered for many years, rendered her bedbound and so necessitated the closing of her nursing home. She retired to her London home at 64 Avenue Road,St John's Wood, London where she wrote for private circulation two autobiographical fragments in a vivid and entertaining style:A Nurse's Story (1955) andEgypt and Khartoum (1956), in which she gave a graphic account of the shipwreck ofSSDelhi. She was engaged on a further volume onbig-game hunting inSouth Africa when she died at home on 26 February 1959 from pneumonia, aged 67.[6][24]
At her request she was cremated,[6] and her ashes laid inSt Ninian's Chapel, Braemar, on theMar Lodge estate alongside her parents and son. Her will was sealed in London after her death in 1959. Her estate was valued at £86,217 (or £1.4 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).[25]
Despite the fact that Alexandra and her sister were not daughters of aroyal duke, they were sometimes unofficially referred to with the territorial designationof Fife but in official documents, until their marriages, they were always styled Her Highness Princess Alexandra or Maud, without the territorial designation "of Fife".[26][27][28]
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54 Mount Street, Mayfair
New Residence, Hill Street, Mayfair
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duchess of Fife 2nd creation 1912–1959 | Succeeded by |