Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (Frittie) and Princess Marie (May) of Hesse-Darmstadt

I don't think it's George V, he had longer hair and bigger eyes at that age. If it was a Wales child, I would go with Louise or Maud. The seller wasn't correct on all their IDs and some weren't even royal so this could be a 'regular' toddler.

ohhh you saw the book that was for sale too? on ebay?

May of Hesse

Her name was Marie ?  *  *    thanks for sharing !

Marie, May, Mary. I've seen all three used. I have no idea what her actual name was though, someone know?

According to a book about Princess Alice little May was christened Maria (Marie) Victoria Feodore Leopoldine on 11th July 1874 at Heiligenberg in Jugenheim in attendance of Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna as well as her daughter Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh and her son-in-law, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh.

I do not find a hint after whom of the two ladies May was christened Maria or Marie (the Protestant version of the name), probably for both. Regarding to a letter Princess Alice wrote to her mother Queen Victoria dated 13th of July 1874 I conclud it was Maria Alexandrovna Duchess of Edinburgh who held the baby during the christening and was her godmother.

Alice wrote: "Marie, ganz in Rosa, hielt ihr Pathchen, ..." (translation: "Marie, complete in pink, hold her godchild ..."; "Pathchen" is a diminutive of "Patenkind", english "godchild").

Had it been the tsarina  she would have written different. In other letters to her mother she called her either Aunt Marie (she was the aunt of her husband) or in the earlier letters the Empress of Russia.

Both german names, "Maria" and "Marie" have the same origin: the Holy Virgin, Maria, the mother of Jesus. Mostly the name "Maria" is given in Catholic families while "Marie" is more used in Protestant families. The English version of that name is "Mary" and "May" is an abbriviation. But "May" is also given as a name or nickname to girls born in the month of May.

Little May was born 24th May 1874, the same date as her maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria, who was a godmother of little May, too. She was not present at the christing of May but was represented by Princess Elisabeth, the mother of Ludwig IV.

She was close to her sister Alix, only two years elder. They shared the nursery and were dressed alike, so it was different to tell them apart.
Alice wrote about May that she ressembled her late brother Frittie. In another letter she found that she looked more like her sister Victoria at the same age only with light hair. Often she wrote to her mother that May and Alicky were a nice pair and that both were her sunshines.

Her brother Ernest-Ludwig (Ernie) was very fond of his little sister.

Doing my research I also came across the date of death of little May and was little shocked for she died 16th November 1878, the same date of death as her niece, little Elizabeth of Hesse (1903). The same date in 1937, the plane-crash at Ostende took place and Eleonore, Georg-Donatus, Cecile and their sons Ludwig and Alexander died.

When I saw the envelopes with the hair of some of the seven Hesse children it was such a strange feeling to think how different their lives turned out to be. Victoria - died as an old woman and great-grandmother; Ella - tried to fight the poverty in Russia, was murderd and is now a Russian Saint; Frittie and May - the two blonde children who had to die so very early not leaving a trace...except some curls of their hair...

Thanks for that observation, Thomas Hesse- it is very true. Where did you have occasion to see their hair? It would be a moving experience. Was the hair of Alexandra there, or Ernest? Their lives also turned out different, most notably Alexandra. It is hard to say if she or Ella was the most tragic, but they would be the top. Ernest's life was more like Victoria and Irene's, but his branch of the family was destined for great tragedy. Was Irene's hair there? Why weren't the other children's hair there? You said some, so I am assuming that was all. Irene too lived a long and peaceful life, but did have to deal with the hemophilia of her sons- which she did very differently than her sister, of course also in different circumstances. So many different destinies for these children of the same blood, it makes you wonder why, and how things could have been different.

There was just Alice's hair and that of Victoria, Ella (2x), Frittie and May. I have seen Alexandra's hair too - kept in an envelope among the letters written to her brother.

If Frittie had lived to adulthood, what would "Prince Friedrich"'s options have been?  The Hesses weren't wealthy by royal standards, so he likely wouldn't have had a large inheritance.  A career in the army or navy would have likely been impossible due to his hemophilia.  What else was available at the time? 

Perhaps he would have married a rich heiress and become a scholar....

He could've followed the path of his nephew Waldemar.

I presume he would have lived like his hessian uncles - somewhere in a large city or perhaps abroad; officially single but secretly married to a communer (opera singer or something like that) and of course with two or three illegimate children *lol*

If, like his uncle (and godfather Leopold), he'd lived to father children, the Hesses in the male line might not have ended with Prince Ludwig. 

Currently there is an exhibition on sculptors from Darmstadt - it includes some works of Benedikt König. He portraited the children of Ludwig IV. in the 1870ies as The four seasons in white marble busts.
There are shown Princess Alix as Winter and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm as Spring.....