H.R.H. THE LATE PRINCESS BEATRICE. (Hansard, 31 October 1944)

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINION AFFAIRS (VISCOUNT CRANBORNE) (Lord Cecil)
My Lords, on many occasions, in the last five fateful years, Their Majesties the King and Queen have shared, with loving sympathy, in the sorrows of their people. To-day, we share in theirs. We mourn the loss of a gracious and beloved Princess, who had shown in her whole life those qualities which have endeared our Royal Family to the people of this country. Princess Beatrice lived to a great age. Born in the middle years of the last century, she spanned in her life the most eventful period in our history. The youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, gay and gifted, as we know from her mother's journals, she grew up in the constant companionship of that revered Queen, and she knew intimately those great figures of the Victorian age who to us have become historic. After her marriage with Prince Henry of Battenberg, she and her husband continued to live at Court, and it is the measure of the confidence which the Queen placed in her judgment that she bequeathed to her the manuscripts of her journals, with power to decide what should be given to the world. For this all-important work, the Princess devoted much of the later years of her life.
Her marriage had been ideally happy, but after the untimely death of Prince Henry of fever, contracted during the Ashanti campaign in 1896, she withdrew more and more from public life, and a further sorrow fell on her when her youngest son, Prince Maurice of Batten-berg, died in 1914 of wounds received in 727 action. Henceforward she lived in retirement, and was little seen outside the circle of her family and her immediate friends. But until the time of her death, she continued her interest in the many charitable objects with which her name was connected, especially in the Isle of Wight, of which she was Governor for nearly fifty years. She was a devoted daughter, a loving mother, and a Princess who had the respect and affection of all who knew her. In her person she reproduced those qualities which made the Victorian age so illustrious a period in our history, and by her death is broken one of the last remaining links with that period. Our loyal sympathy goes out to our King and his beloved Queen in their loss. May it be some comfort to them to know that their people grieve with them in their sorrow.
My Lords, I beg to move: 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 the Princess Beatrice 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.

§ LORD ADDISON
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friends on this side of the House I should like to associate myself completely with what the noble Viscount, the Leader of the House, has said. I, with a few others present, am old enough to remember the events and the stirring times of the Victorian period, or at least of some part of it, and I well remember that in those days the name of Her Royal Highness was familiar to all our people. It was only lately, by reason of the circumstances to which the noble Viscount has 728 referred, that she became less well known. Our recollection of those years, so far as it is retained, is that at all times Princess Beatrice was looked upon with the utmost respect, and indeed affection, by the people, and I am sure that we can properly associate ourselves, as we most heartily do, with the Motion which the noble Viscount has proposed.

§ LORD MOTTISTONE
My Lords, in rising to support the Motion on behalf of all those who sit in this quarter of the House, I may be permitted to say that I am peculiarly glad to have this opportunity owing to the fact that for so many years—fifty at least—it was my privilege to know intimately the gifted Princess who has now passed away. Our official relationships brought us into constant intercourse, especially during the last twenty years, and I can only add to what has been said so eloquently by the Leader of the House and also by the Leader of the Opposition, this thought. Gay and gifted she was, as she was well described by the Leader of the House, in her young days; gifted she remained throughout. She was a most remarkable lady, who spoke fluently many languages, who had a great knowledge of affairs, gathered during the many years when she was closely associated with Queen Victoria; with a wonderful gift for music, a great knowledge of the arts—and all at the disposal of her friends—and was always gay.
Yet she suffered blow upon blow, as must indeed fall upon many people, though in her case they were peculiarly severe. Her husband, in the plenitude of his strength, died young, and a son whom she adored above all things in this life, her son Maurice, fell at the first Battle of Ypres, as I well remember. Moreover, she suffered from a painful affection, which baffled all medical science, causing her the most acute agony, both day and night, during many years. And yet this great lady, who could so easily have refrained from the constant labour of attending, as President, for this, that and the other good deed, for she was the leader in nearly every good cause, not only in the Isle of Wight where she was particularly loved and respected, but throughout the land, never excused herself once. It was my duty to meet her over and over again when I knew that she was in great pain and, though it would have been so easy for her to have 729 sent an excuse, she never would. Dauntless she was. She learnt all this, she used to tell me, from her great mother Queen Victoria, and she will ever be remembered by those who knew her, and especially by her neighbours of all classes in the isle of Wight, as a gifted lady who held high the best part of the Victorian tradition, sympathizing with others in all their sorrows, and possessed by an undaunted determination to early through her duty, wherever it might be. We shall long cherish her memory.