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, succeeding her aunt Princess Louise, the Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife who had died a year before.
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, The 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. The Duke of Windsor was however invited to the weddings of Princess Margaret and Princess Alexandra of Kent, 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 organisations. 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 (queen consort of Sweden) 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 member of the Royal Family had officially received the Duke's wife.
On 28 March 1965 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 67 years old. She was buried at Harewood after a private family funeral at York Minster.
Six British monarchs reigned during Princess Mary's 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).
Read more about this topic: Mary, Princess Royal And Countess Of Harewood
Famous quotes containing the words princess and/or royal:
“We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.”
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