Princess Alice, The First Of Queen Victoria’s Children To Die
Public DomainPrincess Alice was just 35 when she died from diphtheria in 1878.
On April 25, 1843, Queen Victoria gave birth to her third child, Princess Alice. While most of Queen Victoria’s children outlived her, Alice died in 1878 at age 35, more than two decades before Victoria.
Growing up, Alice was interested in nursing, particularly the work of Florence Nightingale. According to Alexander Palace, she was heavily involved in caring for her father, Albert, when he fell ill around 1859.
In 1862, she wed Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Grand Duke of Hesse. Becoming a wife and mother didn’t dull her passion for nursing, however. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, she helped manage field hospitals.
Public DomainAlice nursed her father until his death in 1861.
Alice and Louis had seven children in total. Their second-youngest daughter, Alix, went on to marry Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Alix was executed alongside her husband and children by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Alice wouldn’t live to see this tragedy unfold, though. In 1878, diphtheria broke out in her household. After nursing her children to health for a month — and losing her youngest daughter, Marie, to the disease — she fell ill herself and died on Dec. 14.
Her death came 17 years to the day after the demise of her father, Albert. That day, Queen Victoria wrote in her journal:
“That this dear, talented, distinguished, tender hearted, noble minded, sweet child, who behaved so admirably, during her dear Father’s illness, & afterwards, in supporting me, & helping me in every possible way, — should be called back to her Father, on this very anniversary, seems almost incredible, & most mysterious! To me, there seems something touching in the union which this brings, their names being forever united on this day, of their birth into another better world!”
