Princess Alice

Princess Alice of Battenberg

Princess Alice of Battenberg was born Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie on February 25, 1885 at Windsor Castle in England.

She was the Great-Granddaughter of Queen Victoria born to Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (formerly Prince Louis of Battenberg) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (later Princess Louis of Battenberg and then Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven) who was Queen Victoria’s second Daughter.

Princess Alice spent her Childhood between Darmstadt, Germany; London, the United Kingdom, Jugenheim, Germany and British Malta (where her Naval Officer Father was occasionally stationed).

Eventually, she was diagnosed with Congenital Deafness

With encouragement from her Mother, Princess Alice learned to both lip-read and speak in English and German.

Later she also learned the French and Greek Sign Languages.

Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (the fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia) at the Coronation of King Edward VII in London in 1902.

They married in a Civil Ceremony on October 6, 1903 in Darmstadt, Germany.

The following day, there were two Religious Marriage Ceremonies; one Lutheran at the Evangelical Castle Church, and one Greek Orthodox at the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe.

The Bride and Groom were closely related to the ruling Houses of the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Denmark, and Greece, and their Wedding was one of the great gatherings of the Descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX held before World War I.

After the Marriage Princess Alice moved with her Husband to Greece.

Prince Andrew’s Father, King George I, ruled Greece from 1863 until he was assassinated in 1913.

Prince Andrew’s Brother. Constantine, then became King of Greece.

Princess Alice and Prince Andrew had five Children: Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie, Sophie, and Philip.

During World War 1 Princess Alice and her Children were forced to hid in the Palace Cellars during the French Bombardment of Athens, Greece on December 1, 1916.

In July 1917 King Constantine of Greece abdicated and went into Exile in Switzerland.

Princess Alice and her Children also went into Exile in Switzerland.

At the insistence of Britain’s King George V Princess Alice’s Father relinquished his German Titles and Anglicized the Family’s Name to Mountbatten (because of Anti-German Sentiment during World War 1.)

The following year, two of Princess Alice’s Aunts, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, were murdered by Bolshevik Communists after the Russian Revolution.

 In 1920 Constantine became King of Greece again and Princess Alice and her Family returned to Greece.

After the defeat of the Greek Army in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) King Constantine Abdicated again and went into Exile again.

Princess Alice and Prince Andrew also left Greece with their Children for a second time (on the British Cruiser, HMS Calypso.)

The Family settled in a small house loaned to them by Princess George of Greece and Denmark at Saint-Cloud, on the outskirts of Paris, France.

Princess Alice worked at a Charity Shop that helped Greek Refugees.

In 1928 she Converted to the Greek Orthodox Church.

In 1930 she was had a Mental Break-Down and was sent to a Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

Living through the French Bombing of Athens, Life in Exile, the Murder of her Aunts by the Russian Communists, the Unknown Financial Family Situation most likely led to her Mental Break-Down.

At this time all her Daughters married German Princes and her Son, Philip, moved to the United Kingdom to stay with his Maternal Uncles, Lord Louis Mountbatten and George Mountbatten.

Princess Alice stayed in Kreuzlingen for two years and after a short stay in a Clinic in Italy she was released and lived in Central Europe.

She had cut all ties off with her Husband and Children.

In 1937, her Daughter Cecilie, her Son-in-Law Georg, and two of her Grandchildren were killed in an air accident at Ostend.

Princess Alice and Prince Andrew met for the first time in 6 years at the Funeral and she resumed contact with the rest of her Children.

In 1938 she returned to Athens, Greece and worked with the Poor (living in a 2 bedroom Apartment.)

During World War II, Princess Alice was in the difficult situation of having Sons-in-Law fighting on the German side and a Son in the British Royal Navy.

Her cousin, Prince Victor zu Erbach-Schönberg, was the German Ambassador in Greece until the Occupation of Athens by Axis forces in April 1941.

She moved out of her Apartment and into a three-story house in the Central of Athens.

During the Italian and German Occupations of Greece she worked for the Red Cross, helped organize Soup Kitchens for the starving Population and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her Sister, Crown Princess Louise.

She also organized two Shelters for orphaned and lost Children, and a Nursing Circuit for poor Neighborhoods.

In September 1943 the Germans occupied Athens after the Fall of the Italian Dictator Mussolini.

The Germans began deporting the Greek Jews to the Death Camps (the Germans deported 60,000 of Greece’s 75,000 Jews to the Death Camps where all but 2,000 were killed.)

Princess Alice hid Jewish Widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five Children from the Germans (her other Children escaped Greece.)

When the Gestapo came to search her house for Jews she used her Deafness to her advantage and said she couldn’t understand them.

Evy Cohen, Rachel’s Granddaughter, remarked in 2021 that “If it wasn’t for Prince Philip’s Mother, Princess Alice, my Family wouldn’t exist today.”

When Athens was liberated in October 1944, Princess Alice was described as "living in humble, not to say somewhat squalid conditions” by the British.

Princess learned that her Husband, Prince Andrew, had died in Monaco in December 1944 (they had not seen each other since 1939.)

Shortly after Liberation Greek Communists fought the British in the Dekemvriana on the Streets of Athens with 2,000 Communists killed, 210 British Soldiers killed and 1,200 Anti-Communist Greeks killed.

During the fighting Princess Alice continued to roam the streets of Athens to help those in need.

The Dekemvriana ended in January 1945 and the Greek Civil War began.

Again, Princess Alice risked her life to help those in need during the fighting.

Princess Alice returned to the United Kingdom in April 1947 to attend the November Wedding of her Son, Philip, to Princess Elizabeth, the Elder Daughter and Heir of King George VI.

The Greek Civil War ended in 1949 and the Greek Monarchy was restored.

In January 1949, Princess Alice founded a Nursing Order of Greek Orthodox Nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary in Athens, Greece.

In 1952 Princess Alice’s Daughter-in-Law became Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Alice attended the Coronation in 1953.

Increasingly Deaf and in failing Health, Princess Alice left Greece for the last time following the April 1967 Colonels' Coup.

She moved to Buckingham Palace where he Son (Prince Philip) and Daught-in-Law (Queen Elizabeth II) also lived.

Princess Alice died on December 5, 1969 at Buckingham Palace in London.

She was 84 years old.

Initially her Remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

In 1988 her Final Wish of wanting to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel was realized and she was buried there.

In October 1994 Princess Alice became a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem for helping save Jews during the Holocaust.

In 2010, Princess Alice was Posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.

Princess Alice was not only the Great-Granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the Mother-In-Law of Queen Elizabeth II, but also the Grandmother of King Charles III.