Elizabeth (daughter of Ernie)

[edubs31]

Possibly. But I thought the wedding was in early-October and Ella passed away in mid-November. So they were all together for a month and a half?

Guess I just assumed Ella & Ernst met the IF there in Poland. Eager's memoirs has some detailed info on the journey. It might be worth giving that a look.

[Svetabel]

Possibly. But I thought the wedding was in early-October and Ella passed away in mid-November. So they were all together for a month and a half?

Guess I just assumed Ella & Ernst met the IF there in Poland. Eager's memoirs has some detailed info on the journey. It might be worth giving that a look.

The wedding of Andrea and Alice was in October 6th. Ernst Ludwig and his daughter went to Poland with the Tzar Family November 6th. So they were alltogether more than a month as little Ella died November 16.

[edubs31]

I didn't really the IF attended the wedding also. Thanks for clearing that up.

So it actually was closer to a month and a half. I assume the wedding guests would have arrived at least a day of two before the big day, maybe more, yes? Also I wonder had the tragedy with Ella not occurred how long were the two families scheduled to be together in Poland?

None of this really matters. I'm just curious as to the exact date of the photo, if it might have been poor Ella's last, and whether there were any similar pictures taken of OTMA?

[Svetabel]

So it actually was closer to a month and a half. I assume the wedding guests would have arrived at least a day of two before the big day, maybe more, yes? Also I wonder had the tragedy with Ella not occurred how long were the two families scheduled to be together in Poland?

The IF arrived at Darmstadt September 23, so it was 13 days before the wedding. Other guests, like the Greek relatives, arrived only 2 days before the wedding.

As for the IF departing from Poland that year, 1903, they boarded the train going home December 4. Usually as every year routine the IF spent in Poland September-October, sometimes a part of November. In case with 1903 I think they stayed longer couse Ella's death and inevitable quarantine.

[Svetabel]

Thanks for sharing these Hikari. Elisabeth was a beautiful spirit. A mentor in some ways to OTMA one could say.

She died on November 16, 1903 so is it possible these photos were taken at the very beginning of her visit, with papa Ernst, to the imperial lodge in Skierniewice, Poland?

I think the photosession is not November 1903, some mistakes in dating photos are usual things in any Archives.

[edubs31]

Thanks for sharing these Hikari. Elisabeth was a beautiful spirit. A mentor in some ways to OTMA one could say.

She died on November 16, 1903 so is it possible these photos were taken at the very beginning of her visit, with papa Ernst, to the imperial lodge in Skierniewice, Poland?

I think the photosession is not November 1903, some mistakes in dating photos are usual things in any Archives.

Certainly. Do we have an idea of what and when the last photos of Ella were taken? I'm guessing they're on here somewhere.

[Thomas_Hesse]

Those were the last official portraits taken of Elisabeth!

[Eric_Lowe]

Thanks Thomas for your confirmation.

[edubs31]

Yes, thank you Thomas.

Sweet as those photos are I can't help but to feel a little sad looking at them. Knowing of course she'd be gone in days/weeks.

[Eric_Lowe]

I wonder if her letters and diaries were ever published since I think Ernie kept her things in tact.

[Kalafrana]

Elizabeth died at eight, so unless she was a prodigy there won't have been much in the way of letters and diaries!

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. But course she could have written to her gran-gran (QV) in her childish hand and also her mother Ducky.

Eric

[Kalafrana]

True, but that's still nothing to get excited about.

Looking back on the kind of things I wrote when aged eight (nothing has survived), it was exceedingly dull stuff.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Not really...Elisabeth was a very smart kid, she once told her father "When you told me that you love me, you really mean it, but she (her mother Ducky) only tell me that she loves me". I think it would be interesting to know how she communicated with her divorced parents (she was one of the first child of divorced royal parents).

[Kalafrana]

I'm not suggesting that Elizabeth was unintelligent - that remark of hers was highly perceptive (unless she was just trying to play off one parent against the other).

But I think back to when I was seven or eight, and required to write 'news' every Monday morning at school,and could never think of anything interesting to say about going to the supermarket on Saturday morning  with my parents or whatever it happened to be. Nowadays, with the benefit of 50 years of life experience and a developed sense of humour, I could produce a nice jokey piece comparing a visit to the supermarket with Prince Harry's expedition to the South Pole.

When I was 10 I did draft a letter for my younger brother to send to the manufacturers of Action Man asking for replacement parts after  the dog chewed them up, which was quite unintentionally hilarious. I was furious because I thought 'because our dog chewed the above articles' was very businesslike. But eight is not ten, and I really was intellectually pretty precocious.

Ann