Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
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The Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary Lascelles, née Windsor; 25 April 1897 – 28 March 1965) was a member of the British Royal Family the third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sixth holder of the title of Princess Royal. Mary held the title of princess with the style Highness from birth as the then great-granddaughter of the British Sovereign, and later Her Royal Highness, as the granddaughter and finally daughter of the Sovereign. After her marriage she held the title of Countess of Harewood.
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[edit] Early life
[edit] Birth
Princess Mary was born on 25 April 1897 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England. Her father was Prince George, Duke of York (later George V), the second eldest son of The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and The Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra). Her mother was The Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), the eldest daughter of The Duke and Duchess of Teck.
Mary was named after her paternal great-grandmother, her paternal grandmother, the Princess of Wales, and her maternal grandmother, Princess Mary Adelaide. She was always known by the last of her Christian names, Mary. As a great-grandchild of the British monarch (Queen Victoria), she was styled Her Highness Princess Mary of York. In 1898, the Queen passed letters patent granting the children of the Duke and Duchess of York the style, Royal Highness. Mary was then styled Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of York. She was fifth in the line of succession at the time of her birth.
Her baptism took place at in St Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham on 7 June 1897 by William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York. Her godparents were Queen Victoria, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the King of Greece, the Duke of Teck and Princess Victoria.
[edit] Education
Princess Mary was educated by governesses, but shared some lessons with her brothers, Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), Prince Albert (later George VI), and Prince Henry (later Duke of Gloucester). She became fluent in German and French and developed a life-long interest in horses and horse racing. Her first state appearance was at the coronation of her parents at Westminster Abbey on 11 June 1911.
[edit] Royal duties
During World War I, Princess Mary visited hospitals and welfare organizations 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. This initiative was revived in 2005 by the charity uk4u-Thanks!. She took an active role in promoting the Girl Guide movement, the VADs, and the Land Girls. In 1918, she took a nursing course and went to work at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Princess Mary's public duties reflected her concerns with nursing, the Girl Guide movement, and the Women's Services.
She became honorary president of the British Girl Guide Association in 1920, a position she held until her death. In 1926, she became the commandant-in-chief of the British Red Cross Detachments.
[edit] Marriage
On 28 February 1922, Princess Mary married Henry Charles George, Viscount Lascelles (9 September 1882–23 May 1947), the elder son of Henry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood, and Lady Florence Bridgeman. Their wedding at Westminster Abbey was the first royal occasion in which Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth), a friend of Princess Mary's and one of the bridesmaids, participated. The Princess and her husband made their home in Yorkshire, first at Goldsborough Hall, and later at Harewood House. She took a keen interest in the interior decoration of Harewood House, the Lascelles family's seat, and in farming pursuits, becoming an expert in cattle breeding.
It has been reported that she did not want to marry Lord Lascelles and that her parents forced her into an arranged marriage, and that Lascelles proposed to her after a wager at his club. Her brother the Prince of Wales, later King Edward, to whom she was very close, was against the marriage because he did not want his sister to marry someone whom she did not love. Her eldest son, the Earl of Harewood, however, wrote about their parents' marriage in his memoirs "The Tongs and the Bones" and refuted these widespread rumours that the marriage was an unhappy one. He says "that they got on well together and had a lot of friends and interests in common".
Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles had two sons:
- George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, born 7 February 1923; married, 1949, Maria Donata, aka Marion Stein; 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.
[edit] 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. The couple's elder son assumed the courtesy title of Viscount Lascelles. On 1 January 1932, George V declared that his only daughter should bear the title Princess Royal.
The Princess Royal was particularly close to her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, who subsequently became Edward VIII (who was known as David to his family). After the abdication crisis, she and her husband went to stay with the former Edward VIII, by then created Duke of Windsor, at Enzenfeld Castle near Vienna. Later, in November 1947, she allegedly declined to attend the wedding of her niece, Princess Elizabeth, to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten to protest the fact that the Duke of Windsor had not been invited. She gave ill health as the official reason for her non-attendance.[1] The Duke of Windsor was however invited to the weddings of Princess Margaret and Princess Alexandra, his nieces, but out of bitterness he refused to attend.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Princess Royal became chief controller and later controller commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS, renamed the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1949). In that capacity she travelled Britain visiting its units, as well as wartime canteens and other welfare organizations. On the death of her younger brother, the Duke of Kent, she became the president of Papworth. 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 (formerly Lady Louise Mountbatten) in early March 1965.
The Princess Royal also made history that same month of March, 1965, when she visited her brother, the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) at the London Clinic, where he was recovering from recent eye surgery. The Princess also met her brother's wife, the Duchess of Windsor (at that time, married to the Duke for more than 28 years), one of the Duchess' few meetings with her husband's immediate family up to that time. A few days later, the Queen also visited the Duke of Windsor, and she accepted the presence of the Duchess, who curtsied to her--the first time that a British Monarch had officially received the Duke's wife.
The Princess Royal suffered a fatal heart attack during a walk with her elder son, Lord Harewood, and his children on the grounds of the Harewood House estate. She was buried at Harewood after a private family funeral at York Minster.
Princess Mary lived for less than 68 years, yet six British monarchs reigned during her lifetime: Queen Victoria (her great-grandmother), Edward VII (her grandfather), George V (her father), Edward VIII and George VI (her brothers) and Elizabeth II (her niece).
[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms
| Styles of The Princess Mary | |
 | |
| Reference style | Her Royal Highness |
|---|---|
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
[edit] Titles and styles
- 25 April 1897 – 28 May 1898[2]: Her Highness Princess Mary of York
- 28 May 1898 – 22 January 1901: Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of York
- 22 January 1901 – 9 November 1901: Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Cornwall and York
- 9 November 1901 – 6 May 1910: Her Royal Highness Princess Mary of Wales
- 6 May 1910 – 22 February 1922: Her Royal Highness The Princess Mary[3]
- 22 February 1922 – 6 October 1929: Her Royal Highness The Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles
- 6 October 1929 – 1 January 1932: Her Royal Highness The Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood
- 1 January 1932 – 28 March 1965: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood
Born a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Mary was styled Her Highness Princess Mary of York from birth (this was later changed to Her Royal Highness by Queen Victoria). When Queen Victoria died, for a short time she was known as HRH Princess Mary of Cornwall and York (as her father was now the heir apparent and thus Duke of Cornwall as well as Duke of York) and then HRH Princess Mary of Wales when her father was created Prince of Wales. Finally, upon her father's accession as King she was styled and titled HRH The Princess Mary. When the title Princess Royal was conferred upon her in 1932, she became known as HRH The Princess Royal (occasionally HRH The Princess Mary, Princess Royal). After her marriage, her Harewood titles were affixed after her royal titles. Throughout her life and the various name changes, her signature was simply "Mary".
[edit] Honours
- GBE: Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire, 3 June 1917
- CI: Companion of the Crown of India, 25 April 1919
- GCStJ: Dame Grand Cross of St John of Jerusalem, 12 May 1926
- GCVO: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 11 May 1937
- RRC: Member (First Class) of the Royal Red Cross, 1953
- Royal Family Order of King George V
- Royal Family Order of King George VI
- Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
[edit] Honorary military appointments
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
Commonwealth
- 1936–1950: Colonel-in-Chief, of the
Indian Corps of Signals - 1937–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal
Australian Corps of Signals - 1930–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the
Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) - 1940–1965: Colonel-in-Chief, of the Royal
New Zealand Corps of Signals - and several other Commonwealth regiments.
[edit] Arms
In 1931, Lady Harewood was awarded her own personal arms, being the royal arms, difference by a label argent of three points, each bearing a cross gules[4]
[edit] Ancestry
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[edit] Notes and sources
- ^ Bradford, Sarah (1989). King George VI. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p.424. ISBN 0297796674.
- ^ Royal Styles and Titles – 1898 Letters Patent
- ^ After the accession of her father, George V, she became the child of a Sovereign, and therefore her title changed to The Princess Mary
- ^ Heraldica – British Royal Cadency
| Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood Cadet branch of the House of Wettin Born: 25 April 1897 Died: 28 March 1965 | ||
| British royalty | ||
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| Vacant Title last held by Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife | Princess Royal 1932 – 1965 | Vacant Title next held by Princess Anne |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by The Duke of Devonshire | Chancellor of the University of Leeds 1951–1965 | Succeeded by The Duchess of Kent |
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