Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain

I will have to scan a picture of it and send it to the FA.  By the way I said that it was lapis and diamonds but it isn't lapis at all.  I will try to supply the correct information when I send the picture.

hello all!!!  i love this thread!!  Alice is also my great favorite in royal history, I find her to be an incredible, remarkable person!  thanks for all of the lovely pictures, too!  i collect royalty postcards and just have one small CDV of Alice and her brother, The Prince of Wales, but am always looking for others, my $$ is rather limited, but i hope to have more of Alice one day!!

God bless you all.

I read in Hessian Tapestry about there being tales of Alice's ghost haunting the castle! I think it said that people heard her voice calling out for her children or something like that! Does anyone know more about this? ....My two favorite subjects...Royalty and ghosts!!!  

as a Christian, i have always wondered what heaven is like....maybe it's not really a place, but just a different plane of existence.  i like to think your spirit might go back to the places where you were the happiest.  for me, it would be my childhood, growing up in Texas in the country.  maybe, for the Grand Duchess Alice, Hesse was one of her happiest places, although i know she told her mother in one letter that her own childhood was the happiest time of her life.  Hesse was where she had her children, where she loved Louis.  maybe Alice is around that area sometimes, watching and remembering....

i lost my mother 10 yrs ago very suddenly, it was a devastating time in my life and the lives of my family.  she was a big part of who i was, and who i had thought i would become.  but, i have often felt her spirit around me.  i believe your soul is what makes you really you, that the body our souls live in is just a shell.  i like to think my Mom watches me, too....

hope this wasn't too "out there."  i've just thought about Alice, too, in that respect.  she is my great favorite in German history, it would be nice to think she lends her light to that part of Germany sometime...

David Duff has this to say in 'Hessian Tapestry':
'After his wife's death, the Grand Duke closed Kranichstein, and it returned to the slumber from which Alice had awoken it fifteen years before.  The ghost of her was alone in the rooms that she had loved.  People who walked in the woods told how they had seen her face at the windows, and heard her happy voice calling her childen in from play.'
Shortly after her marriage the Grand Duke of Hesse had taken her to see the old castle of Kranichstein, which was situated in the wooded hills a few miles north-east of Darmstadt.  Although no one had lived there for nearly a hundred years Alice fell in love with it; she expressed a desire to live there in the summer months and as a result her father-in-law had the castle renovated.
The castle was ready for occupancy after Louis and Alice returned from England after the birth of Victoria, and they spent the first of many happy summers there.
The Duke of Cambridge visited them at Kranichstein after the Congress of the German Princes and pronounced that it was " a very nice old place which they have managed to make very comfortable".  Bertie also visited Alice at her Summer home and enjoyed the peace and informality that he found there.
Quite fitting then that Alice's spirit should linger in a place in which she had found much peace and pleasure.

Oh, thank you Martyn for that! I knew I had read something about it! You're right, how fitting that her spirit should linger where she was most happy. Does anyone know how long after her death the sightings began? And have there been any recent sightings?

Also, would anyone like to share stories about other Royal ghosts?? Has anyone seen one???

When I first read that passage in "Hessian Tapestry" I wasn't quite sure whether David Duff was being artistic or whether he literally meant that people had seen Alice's ghost and heard her voice.  I think , on rereading, that he was being literal in this instance.
I may be wrong but I rather suspect that the people who saw and heard her may have been the loyal Hessians who missed her most and wanted to believe that a part of her was still with them in spirit.
However, ready as ever to hear other opinions!

Geoffery Munn in his book'Tiaras a History of Splendour' describes Onor's tiara (the one that survived the crash) as follows:
"A remarkable tiara arranged as a diamond-set diadem bound with criss-crossing ribbons of blue and white stripes cleverly suggested with moonstone and turquoise.  The illusion is heightened when the ribbons travel to the back of the tiara, and there they are suggested with blue and white enamel.  Mounted in platinum, this tiara is a tour-de-force of the jeweller's art.  The rings at the back are lined with yellow gold so that the sharp edges of the platinum will not cut through the silk ties they are designed to acommodate.  This jewel, preumably protected by a strong-box, was on board the aircarft that crashed when the princely family of Hesse flew to England for the marriage of Prince Louis to the Hon. Margaret Geddes in 1937."
The style of this piece and the quality of the setting suggest that it was made in Russia by a competitor of Faberge.  The ribbon element of the design may well be emblematic of true love and possibly also the Hessian colours?
Princess Margaret of Hesse and By Rhine often wore the jewel - the last time being at Buckingham Palace in 1986 for Q.Elizabeth II's sixtieth birthday celebrations.

I greatly admired Princess Alice. She certainly is a remarkable as a princess. She was very religious and always seek answers to her questions about religion. She had a very inquiring mind! She was very interested in medicine and even attended classes in Anatomy (Queen Victoria somehow disapproved this)! By the way, speaking about Alice's interest in medicine and nursing, did Ella studied nursing practices? Her knowledge about nursing surely helped her after she built her convent.

I think Ella was too young to have studied alongside Alice before she died, but it must've been a major influence in their lives even after her death. There were many nursing organizations & hospitals that didn't exist before Alice arrived. Plus, she'd accumulated quite the list of correspondents--Florence Nightingale among them. I don't know how involved Ella was while in Hesse, but certainly by the Russo-Japanese war she was becoming involved in at least the fund-raising aspect of helping the wounded if not the hands-on.

As a kid I grew up with stories about ghosts.  Some were happy ghosts and some ghosts drug chains....  As a kid I always thought these tales were true.  As I grew older,  I concluded ghosts were envented and couldn't exsist.  Therefore,  I felt,  if someone saw one,  they were probably suffering from some kind of mental illness; had too much to drink; smoked or comsume something that caused them to see things which were not really there;  were impressionalbe and thought they saw something that wasn't really there;  or,  were in some kind of state of hysteria.

That is until I had my experience.   Which was:

I was visiting a castle in Scotland and like so many others were on a tour.  I walked from room to room and listen to the tour guide....

In one particular room,  I entered first and something very interesting occured.  I could see the room as it was at that point in time and  then it was like someone had sent a faint image from a movie projector that covered the room.  I saw a throne room with people being presented to a woman sitting on the throne.  I tried to remember the faces.... the clothes.... everything and anything...  The images faded and the room was back  to "normal", as it was to everyone who hadn't seem what I had seen.  

The tour guide told us about  the room and the items in it.  As we started to the next room,  I passed the tour guide and stopped.  I asked the guide if this room had ever been the throne room.  The guide said it had during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.

After the tour,  I bolted toward the shop that sells stuff to tourists and took up a book on Mary Queen of Scots.   I knew what she looked like but I wanted to know the name of one of the ghostly men I had seen...  But he wasn't in the first book nor the second..... Since then I continue to search for his face in books.

The moral of the story is:  Do not be too sure that there are no ghost,  because, you, too, might meet one or more when you least expect it.

Curious One

Far be it from me to rule it out.  I'm trying (unsuccesfully) to remember the quote from Hamlet that goes something like "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are contained in your philosophy Horatio" - someone correct this please..............
Whilst I don't like the idea of Alice being an unhappy spirit, trapped forever in Kranichstein, I do understand that her attachment to the place may be a reason for some echo of her, whatever form it might take, to linger there.

Then there is the "White Lady" of the Romanov Family, who appears when a family member is going to die. She is clad in white and carries white roses, according to the legend. She seems to have left white roses wrapped in white crepe material in the bedroom of Alexander II, which he woke up to find on the morning of the day that he died...she was/is only seen by family members.

Whether this is true or not, it is a good ghost story. It is a bit similar to the Estonian ghost legend of the "White Lady of Hapasalu" who appears in the window of the castle of that town in Estonia in late July every year as she has for centuries...I have not seen her yet, but maybe someday...   Melissa K.

Elisa, I really love the Cripps book! But it is so full of typos. It is sort of odd to have all those wonderful pictures, and then the poor editing and proofing. In it you see the Romanov little children in earlier generations with very large heads...that must be the side of the family that GD Olga N. got that trait from! I have enjoyed this thread, and will look into the books you have suggested. Melissa K.

A very nice link with an engraving of Princess Alice from the lovely sculpture at Osborne. (Thanks Joanna! )
Under Mary Thornycroft on this link can be found the engravings of her other great sculptures of Alice's brothers and sisters.http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/09e683dc.html

If anyone's ever interested many these images (of the royal children) come up for sale on Ebay quite frequently. (Though the site link above offers them for sale as well--didn't check the price). The one of Alice was up just recently--may still be? I don't think I'd ever seen the Vicky one before. From another time they were up (of Helena & Louise respectively) I saved this info:
FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: There is not, we believe, such an official in the Lord Chamberlain's department of the royal household as that of "Sculptor to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty; "if there were, Mrs. Thornycroft would undoubtedly be in possession of "letters patent " confirmatory of such appointment. But although the lady bears not this honorable title, she certainly enjoys all its privileges, inasmuch as the largest portion of the private patronage of royalty seems to fall to her share; the Queen, the Prince Consort, with most, if not all, of the royal progeny, have been reproduced in marble by her industrious and well-directed hand. It has been a frequently debated question whether modern portrait-sculpture should be treated, as to costume, after the fashion of the time, or according to that which had its origin in the great masters of antiquity, and which is usually known as the "classic style." Undoubtedly the costume of our own day, whether it be that of man, woman, or child, has small pretension to aesthetic beauty of any kind, but especially to those qualities universally recognized as constituting sculptural beauty. "What is gained in individuality by adopting the ordinary modern dress, we lose in the graces of the sculptor's art.
Mrs. Thornycroft has inclined to this opinion in her statue of the Princess Helena: there is here nothing which approaches to a compromise of the two styles; the figure is of a pure classic character even to the sandals of the feet. But to give a personality to it, independent of the portrait, the young royal lady is symbolized as " Peace," bearing in her left hand a palm-branch, the emblem of " Victory," and in her right a sprig of olive with the fruit, the especial attribute of " Peace: " this is held forth in the half-opened hand, as if inviting some one to take it. The dress is nothing more than a loose robe, with short sleeves falling easily from the shoulder where it fits rather tightly. The expression of the face is quiet, and very pleasing; the hair is not braided, but falls in thick, wavy masses down the back.
The work, executed for, and in the possession of, Her Majesty, commends itself by the good taste and simplicity of the design; it is what the representation of a young girl, whether of high or low position, ought to be-an embodiment of the purity and modesty of nature with the purity and modesty of Art-treatment.
BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST: Mary Thornycroft (1814- 1895) was the daughter of the sculptor John Francis. She was born in Norfolk and trained in her father's studio and first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 21 years. In 1840 she married the sculptor Thomas Thornycroft and they went to live and work in Rome. She was engaged by Queen Victoria to do life size statues of the Royal children, the four eldest representing the 'Four Seasons' and they were a great success. In 1863 she made the first bust of Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Some of her other works are - Busts of Queen Victoria, Princess Helena, Princess Alice and the Duchess of Edinburgh and they are all in the Royal collection. Her statue The Skipping Rope is at Osborne A statue by her of Prince Alfred caused much offence to a teetotaller who objected strongly to his holding a bunch of grapes.
FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: This is a companion work of the statue of 'Peace, the Princess Helena,' engraved in our last number. Assuming, though such is not always the case, that plenty follows in the train of peace, the sculptor has given to the young royal lady the symbols or attributes of the time of harvesting and fruit-gathering, as indicative of abundance, typifying barns filled with golden grain, and the wine-press with the produce of the orchard and the vineyard. She holds in her hands a cornucopia of ripe fruit; at her feet are some ears of wheat. There is an appropriate distinction in the treatment of the two figures, as we read each respectively. 'Peace' stands in an attitude of rest; the lines of the drapery, as well as the position of the limbs, indicate repose: 'Plenty' is in motion; she is carrying home the gathered fruit, the bared arm shows her to have been at work, and the robe hangs loosely on the person, as if disarranged by labor, yet there is no carelessness in the disposition of the garment, it is modeled with a due regard to richness of effect, though had the uppermost folds been a little less strongly marked than they are, it would have improved its general appearance. Independently of the interest these works cannot fail to excite as pleasing examples of sculptured Art, they must be welcome as portraits, and faithful ones too, of children of the most popular monarch in Christendom, our own most gracious and deservedly loved Queen. Politics are, happily, excluded from the column? of our journal, and we have no desire to enter their arena, but we may be allowed to say there is no true Englishman or woman who does not desire that our Queen may long be preserved to us and her children.