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Auction: 26002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 144

The important group of five awarded to Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, V.A., G.C.V.O., G.B.E., G.St.J., Honorary Commandant, Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service, Honorary Air Commandant, Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division & Commandant-in-Chief, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry

Canadian Forces Decoration, G.VI.R. (H.R.H. Princess Alice); France, Republic, Legion of Honour, Grand Cross set of Insignia, by Arthus Bertrand, Paris, comprising sash Badge and breast Star, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, in its case of issue and with full sash riband; Portugal, Republic, Order of Christ, Grand Cross set of Insignia, by da Costa, Lisbon, comprising sash Badge and breast Star, silver-gilt and enamel, with full sash riband and in fitted case of issue; Romania, Kingdom, Order of the Crown, 2nd Type Grand Cross set of Insignia, by Resch, Bucharest, comprising sash Badge and breast Star, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, in fitted case of issue and with narrow-width (37mm) Ladies sash riband; Spain, Kingdom, Order of Marie-Louise, by Cejalvo, Madrid, sash Badge, silver-gilt, silver and enamel, with full sash riband and in fitted case of issue, good very fine, together with the Bestowal Document for the Order of Christ in the name of 'Sna Alteza Real a Senbora Princeza Alice-Maria Victoria Augusta Paulina, Princeza Realdon Gran-Bretonba e Irlanda, Princeza de Teck, Condessa de Althlone', dated 14 February 1920 (Lot)

Provenance:
Christie's, April 1992, Lot 368.

Princess Alice was understandably the recipient of a plethora of British Orders and Decorations including being Member, 1st Class, of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert; Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order; Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire; Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem; Royal Family Order of George V & Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II, besides various Coronation & Jubilee awards.

It would appear the Canadian Forces Decoration in this Lot is the only officially named award in her entitlement.

The cataloguer turns to The Tatler for a good distillation of her remarkable life:

'Born at Windsor Castle on 25 February 1883, Princess Alice was the last surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria, living to the age of 97.

She was the eldest child and only daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, of the German royal house.

When Alice was just one year old, her father Prince Leopold died of haemophilia, a genetic condition he inherited from Queen Victoria. Alice's younger brother, Prince Charles Edward, was born just weeks later and became the new Duke of Albany on his birth.

In 1904, Princess Alice married Prince Alexander of Teck, brother of Queen Mary. The couple had three children, but only their daughter, Princess May of Teck, later Lady May Cambridge, survived them.

In 1917, they renounced their German Teck title, and were made Earl and Countess of Athlone, though Princess Alice retained her style of Princess as the male-line granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her husband, the earl, was then appointed Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, and served from 1924-31. Princess Alice accompanied him and was the Vicereine during that period.

Lord Athlone and Princess Alice had a coastal beach house constructed at Muizenberg, which still stands today and is one of South Africa's national monuments. The Cape Town suburb of Athlone was named in honour of the Governor-General, and it is the only physical reminder of the Athlones' residence at the Cape.

Princess Alice accompanied her husband to Canada where he served as Governor General from 1940 to 1946 in Ottawa. Their three grandchildren, Anne, Richard, and Elizabeth, lived with them in Canada for the duration of the war. In 1966, Princess Alice published her memoir, For My Grandchildren.

As Vicereine of Canada, Princess Alice also supported the war effort by serving as Honorary Commandant of the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service, Honorary Air Commandant of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division and president of the nursing division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.

Besides living in both South Africa and Canada, Princess Alice was one of the most well-travelled members of the Royal Family, visiting Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Malaya, Singapore, Siam (now Thailand), Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Uganda, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the West Indies and the United States.

At the end of the Second World War, the American Military Government in Bavaria, under the command of General George S. Patton, arrested and imprisoned Princess Alice's brother, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (who served as a member of the Reichstag from 1937 to 1945), because of his actions as a Nazi supporter during the war. Alice, learning of her brother's incarceration, came to Germany with her husband to plead with his American captors for his release. They would not yield, and in 1946 he was sentenced by a de-nazification court, heavily fined and almost bankrupted.

The couple retired to their apartment in Kensington Palace after WWII, where they lived together: the Earl of Athlone died in 1957 at Kensington Palace in London, but Princess Alice died in her sleep on 3 January 1981, a month before her 98th birthday. She was the longest-living British princess of royal blood.'



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Estimate
£5,000 to £7,000

Starting price
£4800