Princess Alice of Battenberg

Alice was born to Prince Louise of Battenberg and mother Princess Victoria of Hesse in the Windsor Castle in London on 25th February, 1885. She was the great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who was present when Alice entered the world. She was considered a slow learner, as she wasn’t able to speak properly owing to a disability, which later turned out to be a congenital deafness. Her mother got extremely concerned about her.

Even though she lacked in hearing abilities, she made up with strong penchant to learn and despite her medical condition, she learned to speak and lip-read quickly, with professional help. Being the eldest child, she was deeply loved by her mother and spent her initial days switching between England, Germany and Mediterranean. These constant travels shaped her up and the new experiences she had on these trips made her grow faster than other kids of her age. While she was a teenager, she got well versed in French and English and always had the penchant for learning new languages.

Most of her early years were spent in the comfort of all the royal pleasures among her royal relatives and she had a very content childhood. She had faith in Christianity and was devoted to God. After attending the funeral of her great-grandmother, she turned to Anglican faith. She attended the coronation celebrations of King Edward VII in 1902, where she met Prince Andrew of Greek for the first time, and they fell in love.

Prince Andrew, although far behind in the line of succession, was the son of King George I and Queen Olga of Greece. They were highly respected among the European monarchs and had good relations with the UK, Germany, Russia and Denmark.

The wedding took place on 6th October 1903 at Darmstadt. It was attended by a large gathering of royal guests. She became Princess Andrew after the marriage and the marriage was followed by two more ceremonial weddings.

Prince and Princess Andrew had five children in all. Their first four children were girls - Theodore, Margarita, Cecile and Sophie and all of them were later married to the great German royal houses. The couple almost gave up their dreams of having a heir but six years after giving birth to their last daughter, the couple had a son, who was named Philip. He would later marry Queen Elizabeth II of England.

As it is a norm with royal princesses, Alice didn’t have much of a say in the matters of the court, and hence, she was resorted to doing charities and following religious practices ardently. In 1908, while attending a royal wedding in Russia, Alice was furthermore drawn towards the religion and got the idea of founding a religious order for the nuns. When they returned to Greece, Prince Andrew found out that Greek politics was becoming unstable and that their safety was in danger and the prince, as a result, had to resign from his military positions.

When the Balkan crisis raised its head in 1912, the Prince was reinstated and Alice spent most of her time nursing the wounded. She forgot she was a royalty and dedicated herself to the service of the people, when the crisis was at its very peak.

Princess Alice died on December 5, 1969, with a senile mind and a frail body. At the time of her death, she had nothing on her as she had given everything away to the ones in need. Her remains were kept in the Windsor castle following her death, but her son fulfilled her last wish to be buried in Jerusalem.

For her services towards the Jews during the Jew Massacre, Princess Alice was named ‘Hero of the Holocaust’ by the British government. Israel also honoured her as ‘Righteous among the Nations’ in 1994.

She dedicated a large part of her life in the service of the poor and will always be remembered as a kind woman, who gave away everything she had to the ones in need.