Excerpt From Children Of The Empire

From a young age, I was always fascinated by the lives of ordinary people and I wanted to understand them more. At Balmoral, I would visit the tenants who lived on the estate to get to know them, so that I could try to understand what it was like to live a less privileged life. On one occasion, at Windsor, I even managed to escape from my governess so I could sit with the ordinary people in church. As I grew older, my interest in ordinary people’s lives developed into a desire to try to improve their living standards. My family were looking for a good marriage for me. I was initially introduced to the Prince of Orange and then Prince Albert of Prussia, a cousin of Fritz, my sister’s husband. I met the Prince of Orange at Windsor Castle but I didn’t really like him, so no marriage materialised and I don’t think he was very interested in me either.

Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine and Third Child of Queen Victoria