Early Life
Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg was born in the Tapestry Room at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Her mother was the eldest daughter of Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father was the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine through his morganatic marriage to Countess Julia von Hauke. Her three younger siblings, Louise, George, and Louis, later became Queen of Sweden, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.
She was christened in Darmstadt on 25 April 1885. She had six godparents: her three surviving grandparents the Grand Duke of Hesse, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, and Julia, Princess of Battenberg; her aunts Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia and Princess Marie of Erbach-Schönberg; and her great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
Alice spent her childhood between Darmstadt, London, Jugenheim, and Malta (where her naval officer father was occasionally stationed). Her mother noticed that she was slow in learning to talk, and became concerned by her indistinct pronunciation. Eventually, she was diagnosed with congenital deafness after her grandmother identified the problem and took her to see an ear specialist. With encouragement from her mother, Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English and German. Educated privately, she studied French, and later, after her engagement, she learned Greek. Her early years were spent in the company of her royal relatives, and she was a bridesmaid at the marriage of George, Duke of York (later King George V) and Mary of Teck in 1893. A few weeks before her sixteenth birthday she attended the funeral of Queen Victoria in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and shortly afterward she was confirmed in the Anglican faith.
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