HRH The Princess Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
The only requirement that Queen Victoria made was that her daughter should live close at hand. This suited Christian as he was not likely to ascend to any thrones and was not part of any ruling family. He became Ranger of Great Windsor Park and High Steward of Windsor.
Together, Helena and Christian had 6 children, 4 of whom lived into adulthood. As we will see and have already seen with Princesses Victoria and Alice, the documentation of the Coat of Arms in the female line is more difficult to find than in the male line where assignments of Labels are made.
Christian Victor
Christle, as he was known, was the first member of the British Royal Family to go to school rather than have a tutor. Having attended Sandhurst, he became a career soldier with a keen interest and ability at cricket.
He became an officer in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, rising to Major, and participated in many expeditions to Africa, including the Ashanti Expedition to Ghana, the defeat of the Dervishes at Omdurman near Khartoum, Sudan under Lord Kitchener and the Second Boer War being involved the relief of Ladysmith.
Whilst in Pretoria in October 1900, he came down with malaria and died of enteric fever on 29th of the month at the age of only 33.
The photograph is a half-length portrait of Christian Victor, in military undress uniform, probably in or before leaving for South Africa. He has a number of memorials, including a statue in the shadow of Windsor Castle at the bottom of Thames Street.
Albert
Like his elder brother, Christian Victor, Albert (or Abby as he was called) was destined for a military career. Unlike his brother, however, Albert served in the Prussian Army. He was excused combative service during the First World War by his cousin, the Kaiser.
In 1921 he succeeded his cousin Ernst Gunther as head of the family and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. In turn, Albert would be succeeded by his cousin Freidrich Ferdinand, Duke of Glücksburg.
Albert never married, particularly being known at the time as a woman-hater, and therefore did not have any legitimate issue. However, he did have an illegitimate daughter, Valerie Marie, by an unknown woman of 'high noble birth' whom he recognised in later life. As she was adopted by a family of Jewish origins, Albert's sisters were required to confirm Valerie Marie's 'Aryan' lineage in the run-up to the Second World War which they readily and officially did on 26th July 1938.
Helena Victoria
Known to her family as Thora, Helena Victoria might be regarded as rather unremarkable princess who never married. She continued her Mother's example, however, and immersed herself in charitable work, including the YMCA and YWCA, and also her Mother's Princess Christian's Nursing Home at Windsor. She also visited troops in France during the First World War and organised entertainments for them.
She can be seen attending the wedding of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1947, a few months before her death the following year. She is the lady in the wheelchair in the group photographs.
As well as her younger sister, Marie Louise, she is noted for falling foul of the edicts from her cousin King George V as to German titles and the founding of the House of Windsor. Both sisters, as members of the British Royal Family, readily complied and relinquished their German name, which was "of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg" in full. Although technically no longer in existence, they were allowed to retain their title of 'Highness' but were never confirmed with any territorial designation, not even 'of Great Britain and Ireland' nor 'of the United Kingdom'. They were effectively Princesses of nowhere...
Both Helena Victoria and Marie Louise simply quartered their parents' Coats of Arms, dropping the Inescutcheon of Saxony during the First World War. Surprisingly, though, but presumably because of their status in the British Royal Family, their Mother's Arms are in the dominant first and fourth Quarters. This would be repeated by Beatrice's children, even though neither Helena nor Beatrice were remotely heraldic heiresses.
Their Coronets were different to other grandchildren, being through the female line. We will again see more on that with Beatrice's children when we conclude this section.
Marie Louise
In comparison to her elder sister, Marie Louise (or Louie as she was known) could be called positively eccentric, with all the appearances of a dotty old lady. However, Cecil Beaton, who got to know her and photographed her often, described her as charming. She doted on her godson, Prince Richard now Duke of Gloucester, to whom she left many of her jewels.
Her first claim to fame was her marriage, which was as disastrous as a royal marriage could get. Marie Louise fell in love and married Prince Aribert of Anhalt, third son of the reigning Duke, many said a little too quickly. Even journalists at the time said there was something not quite right. She was definitely not prepared for her husband to virtually ignore her once she got to her new home in Germany, where she lead a very lonely life. She therefore took up travel to get out of the stuffy atmosphere. Whilst Marie Louise was away in Canada her mother, Princess Helena, received a telegram from the Duke demanding his daughter-in-law's return to Anhalt for neglecting her wifely duties and to face divorce proceedings. Helena went to her mother who wisely told the Canadian Governor General to advise Marie Louise to come back to England and The Queen. It soon turned out that the Duke was covering up for having found out that Aribert had been caught with a male servant. The marriage was therefore annulled and Marie Louise never remarried, being of the opinion that her marriage vows were binding for life. Aribert did not remarry either.
Marie Louise went on to enjoy a fruitful and full life. Acquiring rooms for herself in London, she created a small studio for making jewellery, and became a much-respected patron of the arts. Her charity work often found her in the homes of the poor, unpretentiously learning about their lives and establishing schemes to alleviate their sufferings.
She established the ‘Princess Club’ for the workers of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, providing ante-natal care for expectant mothers, organising home visits from district nurses, and running groups of brownies, guides and scouts. When the First World War broke out, she converted the Club into a hospital with one hundred beds.
She wrote her memoirs which were published shortly before her death and, as well as professing a dislike for her husband, she recounted stories of the four Coronations she lived to experience. Her favourite story is of sitting behind her Aunt Beatrice in the Royal Box at HM King Edward VII's Coronation in 1902 when her Aunt let an elaborately embroidered Order of Service slip and crash into the priceless church plate below. (The story also goes that Marie Louise got rather over-enthusiastic with her 'medicinal' supply of gin and tonic at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was observed being equally over-enthusiastic with her waving during the coach procession after the long ceremony...!)
Her lasting legacy must be her encouragement of HM Queen Mary to commission the now famous Queen's Doll's House which is a showcase of miniature craftsmanship and still on display at Windsor Castle.