Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood


Mary, Princess Royal, was a member of the British royal family. She was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, the sister of kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Elizabeth II. In the First World War, she performed charity work in support of servicemen and their families. She married Henry Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles, in 1922. Mary was given the title of Princess Royal in 1932. During the Second World War, she was Controller Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The Princess Royal and the Earl of Harewood had two sons, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, and Gerald David Lascelles.

Early life and education

Mary was born at 3:30 pm on 25 April 1897 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. She was the third child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father was the only surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, while her mother was the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. She was named Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary, after her paternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria; her paternal grandmother, Alexandra, Princess of Wales; her maternal grandmother, Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck; and her great-aunt, Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, with whom she shared a birthday. She was known by the last of her Christian names, Mary. She was fifth in the line of succession at the time of her birth, preceded by her grandfather, father, and elder brothers Edward and Albert, though would later move down the line after the births of her younger brothers Henry, George, and John.
She was baptised at St Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham on 7 June by William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York. Her godparents were: the Queen ; the King of the Hellenes ; the Dowager Empress of Russia ; the Prince and Princess of Wales ; the Duchess of Teck ; Princess Victoria of Wales ; and Prince Francis of Teck. Her grandfather ascended the throne in 1901 when Mary was three years old.
Princess Mary was educated by governesses, but shared some lessons with her brothers, Edward, Albert, and Henry. She became fluent in German and French, and developed a lifelong interest in horses and horse racing. Her first state appearance was at the coronation of her parents at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911.

Charity work

During World War I, Princess Mary visited hospitals and welfare organisations with her mother; assisting with projects to give comfort to British servicemen and assistance to their families. One of these projects was Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Fund, through which a total of £100,000 worth of gifts was sent to serving British soldiers and sailors for Christmas, 1914,.
She took an active role in promoting the Girl Guide movement, the VADs, and the Land Girls. In June 1918, following an announcement in The Gentlewoman, she began a nursing course at Great Ormond Street Hospital, working two days a week in the Alexandra Ward.
In 1918 she was appointed colonel-in-chief of the Royal Scots, this honour being bestowed by her father, the King. On 20 November 1918, Princess Mary became the first member of the royal family to visit France following the Armistice. She visited centres associated with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service or Voluntary Aid Detachment Units, and hospitals with wounded soldiers. While visiting Ypres she spotted two soldiers from the Royal Scots. It transpired that the entire regiment was stationed there, and a march past and parade of the regiment's 17th battalion was arranged. During her visit to Le Tréport, she rode in a whippet tank, which the Yorkshire Evening Post described as a "great experience".
Princess Mary's public duties reflected her concerns with nursing, the Girl Guide movement, and the Women's Services.
In the period leading up to her marriage, girls and women in the British Empire named Mary or its variants banded together to form "The Marys of the Empire," and donated money toward a wedding present. She presented this fund to the Girl Guides Association for the purchase of the estate of Foxlease, and following the exhibition of her wedding presents, she also contributed half the proceeds to the same cause, for upkeep, a total of £10,000, which enabled the project to go ahead.
She became honorary president of the British Girl Guide Association in 1920, a position she held until her death. In 1925 she received the Silver Fish Award, Girl Guiding's highest adult honour, in recognition of her contribution to the movement. In 1958 she became the president of the Guide Club.
It was reported in July 2013 that British Pathé had discovered newsreel film from 1927 in which the ancestors of Catherine Middleton are, as Lord Mayors of Leeds, playing host to Princess Mary at the Young Women's Christian Association in Hunslet, Leeds; both Sir Charles Lupton and his brother Hugh Lupton, were the uncles of Olive Middleton, the Princess of Wales's great-grandmother.
In 1921, the Princess became the first patron of the Not Forgotten Association, a position she held until her death in 1965. The charity's first Christmas Tea Party was organised by Mary and held at St James's Palace in 1921 when she invited 600 wounded servicemen for afternoon tea and the event has been held annually ever since. In 1926, Princess Mary became the commandant-in-chief of the British Red Cross Detachments.
In the 1920s, she was a patron of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival. By the 1940s, Princess Mary was attending the opening nights and many of the festival's performances, as was her son, George, and his wife, the Countess of Harewood, née Marion Stein, a former concert pianist. George was a noted music critic whose career included the role of artistic director of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.
In 1931, she was appointed patron of the Yorkshire Ladies Council of Education. She was also patron of the Girls' Patriotic Union of Day Schools.
File:1927 - Princess Mary leads local dignitaries in a procession in Headingley, Leeds.jpg|thumb|Princess Mary leads local dignitaries in a procession in Headingley, Leeds in 1927
It was reported in July 1927 that at a garden party at the Headingley Cricket Ground, the Princess was served tea alongside dignitaries who included members of the Middleton family; Olive Middleton, great-grandmother of Catherine, Princess of Wales, was one of them. The Princess and her son, George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, were patrons of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra which had played at soirées at their home, Harewood House. Attending these concerts was the orchestra's co-founder, Richard Noël Middleton, who was on friendly terms with the Princess. Middleton's wife, Olive, was a member of the Princess's fundraising committee for the Leeds General Infirmary. Olive's first cousin was fellow committee member Elinor G. Lupton who reportedly launched the fund-raising appeal in 1933. The committee's vice-presidents included the Princess's sister-in-law, the Hon. Mrs Edward Lascelles, who served alongside Olive Middleton and her relative, Jessie Beatrice Kitson. Princess Mary became patron of the Leeds Infirmary in 1936.

Marriage and family

On 28 February 1922, Princess Mary married Viscount Lascelles, the elder son of the 5th Earl of Harewood and his wife, Lady Florence Bridgeman, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Bradford of Weston Park. The bride was 24 years old, while the groom was 39.
Their wedding was held at Westminster Abbey, and attracted large crowds along the route to Buckingham Palace. The ceremony was the first royal wedding to be covered in fashion magazines, including Vogue. The bride's gown was designed by Messrs Raville and featured emblems of Britain and India. It was the first royal occasion in which Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a friend of Princess Mary, participated, as one of the bridesmaids. She later married Mary's brother, Prince Albert, and became queen consort of the United Kingdom upon his accession in 1936.
Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles had two sons:
The Princess and her husband had homes in London and in Yorkshire.

London

Prior to her marriage, Mary's husband Viscount Lascelles had purchased a palatial London townhouse, Chesterfield House in South Audley Street for £140,000; Chesterfield House served as the couple's London residence for the first nine years of their marriage. In 1931 King George V and Queen Mary purchased 32 Green Street, Mayfair as a London home for their daughter, rendering Chesterfield House surplus to the couple's needs. Princess Mary and Lord Harewood vacated Chesterfield House in early 1932. Queen Mary reportedly expressed an interest in purchasing 32 Green Street as a London House for her daughter in 1931, and consent was obtained from property's owner, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster with the proviso that the Grosvenor Estates could maintain the right to repurchase the House at a future date if its use as a royal residence ceased. The couple continued to occupy 32 Green Street when in London until the outbreak of War in 1939, and the House was repurchased by Grosvenor Estate in 1946; the house was later repurposed as the Embassy of Brazil, London. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, she was granted the use of a grace-and-favour apartment at St James's Palace, which continued to be her official London residence for the remainder of her life.

Yorkshire

While at Goldsborough Hall, Princess Mary had internal alterations made by the architect Sydney Kitson, to suit the upbringing of her two children and instigated the development of formal planting of beech-hedge-lined long borders from the south terrace looking for a quarter of a mile down an avenue of lime trees. The limes were planted by her relatives as they visited the Hall throughout the 1920s, including her father, King George, and mother, Queen Mary.
After becoming the Countess of Harewood upon the death of her father-in-law, Princess Mary moved to Harewood House, and took a keen interest in the interior decoration and renovation of the Lascelles family seat. In farming pursuits, Princess Mary also became an expert in cattle breeding and was on the board of trustees of the Royal Agricultural Society of England of which her husband had been president. In December 2012, some of the Princess's belongings were sold in "Harewood: Collecting in the Royal Tradition", an auction organised by Christie's.
In the first half of the 20th century, she occasionally rode with the Bramham Moor Hunt – Lord Harewood was Master of the Hunt – and entertained many horse-racing enthusiasts at Harewood house parties for the race events at Wetherby and York.