On This Day In History . 14 December 1878 . 👑 Princess Alice of the United Kingdom died . . ◼ On 14 December, the anniversary of her father's death (Prince Albert) , she became seriously ill with the diphtheria caught from her son. Her last words were "dear Papa", & she fell unconscious at 2:30 am. Just after 8:30 am, she died. Alice was buried on 18 December 1878 at the Grand Ducal mausoleum at Rosenhöhe outside Darmstadt, with the Union Flag draped over her coffin. . ◼ Alice was the first of Queen Victoria's nine children to die, & one of three to be outlived by their mother, who died in 1901 . Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (born .25 April 1843); later Princess Louis of Hesse & Grand Duchess of Hesse & by Rhine) was the third child & second daughter of Queen Victoria & Albert, Prince Consort. . . Some Facts; . ◼ On 1 July 1862, Alice married the minor German Prince Louis of Hesse, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, they had seven children. . ◼ Alice was a prolific patron of women's causes & showed an interest in nursing, especially the work of Florence Nightingale. When Hesse became involved in the Austro-Prussian War, Darmstadt filled with the injured; the heavily pregnant Alice devoted much of her time to the management of field hospitals. One of her organisations, the Princess Alice Women's Guild, took over much of the day-to-day running of the state's military hospitals. As a result of this activity, Queen Victoria became concerned about Alice's directness about medical, & in particular, gynaecological, matters. . ◼ Princess Alice was the mother of Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (empress consort of Tsar Nicholas II), maternal grandmother of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, & maternal great-grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II. Another daughter, Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was, like the tsaritsa & her family, killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. . . . #OnThisDayInHistory #thisdayinhistory #D14Dec #theyear1878 #PrincessAlice #HouseofSaxeCoburgandGotha #History #theBritishMonarchy #Instahistory #historyfacts (at Rosenhöhe) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrYsaZ2Fd8i/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ia4v30zr9zix
