THE DEATH OF H.R.H.NCESS CHRISTIAN. (Hansard, 13 June 1923)

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS CURZON OF KEDLESTON)

My Lords, I rise to move the Motion which stands upon the Paper in my name. Its words are as follow:— That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, to express the deep concern of this House at the great loss which His Majesty has sustained by the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Christian, and to condole with His Majesty on this melancholy occasion: To assure His Majesty that this House will ever feel the warmest interest in whatever concerns His Majesty's domestic relations; and to declare the ardent wishes of this House for the happiness of His Majesty and of His Family. When notice of this Motion was placed upon the Paper yesterday afternoon I felt certain that your Lordships would be unanimously of the opinion that both 472 Houses of Parliament would desire to join in an expression of respectful condolence not only to the King and to the Royal Family but more particularly to that branch of it which has lost the distinguished lady who has just passed away.

Quite early in her life the late Princess Christian realised, as so many of the Royal House have done, the great scope that is open to members of the Royal Family in this country to associate themselves with the interests of the community as a whole and more particularly with the interests of the suffering and poor. High rank and great station, in reality, enhance rather than diminish these opportunities, and, accordingly, if we look back at the last fifty years, we find that there is no good work, no beneficent cause, with which the late Princess was not prepared and anxious to associate herself; so much so that her name became a household word throughout the country, and there was probably no member of the Royal Family whose lineaments were more familiar to every class of the population.

During her long life, for it was prolonged to more than the normal span, she became, indeed, a real servant of the people, and they responded to these efforts on her part with a true and loyal and unchanging affection. More particularly did she address herself to the patronage of the arts, to the organisation of nursing and, as I hinted just now, to the relief of distress and of suffering. Her work in this respect endures, and will be carried out by those who have inherited her traditions and will continue to be inspired by her example. The late Princess was, in truth, a noble-minded daughter of an illustrious mother. Above all, she was a devoted lover of this country where she spent practically the whole of her life unmarried, married, and afterwards as a widow, to which she gave the life of her first-born son, and to which her own life and service were continuously and ungrudgingly dedicated. I hope, my Lords, that you will pass nemine contradicente the Motion which I have the honour to put to your Lordships.

Moved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, to express the deep concern of this House at the great loss which His Majesty has sustained by the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Christian, and to 473 condole with His Majesty on this melancholy occasion: To assure His Majesty that this House will ever feel the warmest interest in whatever concerns His Majesty's domestic relations; and to declare the ardent wishes of this House for the happiness of His Majesty and of His Family.—(The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.)

§ EARL BEAUCHAMP

My Lords, in the unfortunate but inevitable absence of my noble friend Viscount Grey of Fallodon, it falls to me to second the Motion which has just been made by the noble Marquess the Leader of the House. I am sure that the fine eulogy which he has pronounced will receive an assenting echo in every part, of this Assembly. It is at the present time the fashion to decry the Victorian age and, above all, to criticise with a good deal of cynicism the system of education which was prescribed by the Prince Consort for his children. If educational systems are to be judged by their results no result could have been happier than that which was attained by the system of education laid down by the Prince Consort. Whether we remember the life of Her Royal Highness who has just passed away, or the lives of her sisters or her brothers, including those who fortunately are still among us, we may truly say that nothing could have been more happily devised in order that we should possess a Royal Family, not only devoted to the interests of this country, but who have found themselves, as the result of long lives full of activities, the objects of the affection of the people of this country.

The noble Marquess specially referred to the interest of Her Royal Highness in nurses. It distinguished her throughout her career, and we are rather apt perhaps, nowadays, to forget how great a difference there is in this matter in the lives of people to-day as compared with some fifty years ago. Nursing is a commonplace in the lives of the rich. They never had, fifty years ago, anything like the comforts which they can obtain now by the help of nurses, but still less had the poor anything like the advantages which they have to-day. There is hardly a household in the land, however poor or however humble, which cannot now call upon the services of trained nurses, and that that is the case is very 474 largely due to the example, the energy, and the wise foresight of Her Royal Highness Princess Christian, who from the beginning took the greatest interest in the nursing profession.

I have the honour to be connected with one of the great hospitals of London, the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. I know how Her Royal Highness used to visit there constantly. Unnoticed by the newspapers, without any advertisement of any sort or kind, she was a constant visitor to that hospital and every time she went there she was welcomed by the patients, the staff and the nurses, who recognised the compliment which her visits meant. That kind of private charity, exercised in an unostentatious way through so many years, has been as it were the keynote of Her Royal Highness' life. Her public life, acted on the great stage, has been animated in just the same way by a desire to be useful to her country and to carry out any good work which lay within her reach. I feel sure that, actuated by the same spirit of duty and of charity, Her Royal Highness has justly earned the affection and esteem of the people of the whole Empire.