I just came across the factoid that Queen Mary holds the record (jointly, with her sister-in-law Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone) for the receipt of Royal Family Orders. Queen Mary received the Family Orders of her grand-mother-in-law Victoria (1893); father-in-law Edward VII (1902); husband George V (1911); son George VI (1937) and granddaughter Elizabeth II (1952). She received this last Order shortly before her death and was thus denied the opportunity to wear it in public. Princess Alice received the same Royal Family Orders. At the time of her death in 1981 she was the sole surviving member of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert.
The most decorated of all consorts, Queen Mary received the Order of the Garter upon her husband’s accession to the throne (1910). A year later, on the occasion of the Delhi Durbar, she was appointed a Lady Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India. This latter appointment doubled her Indian orders as Queen Victoria had appointed her to the Imperial Order of the Crown of India over a decade earlier. In 1917 Queen Mary became a Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire: she would serve as the Order’s Grand Master from 1936 until her death in 1953. Also in 1936 King Edward VIII appointed her a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Queen Mary would receive the Royal Victorian Chain from his brother a few months later. Aside from her numerous Royal Family Orders (listed supra), Queen Mary was also a Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
