Princess Alexandra (born 1936)
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, is a member of the British royal family and the only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. She is also the only living granddaughter
of George V, a niece of Edward VIII and George VI, and a first cousin of Elizabeth II. Alexandra's mother was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Elizabeth II, making her both a second cousin and first cousin once removed of Charles III.
Alexandra was married to businessman Sir Angus Ogilvy from 1963 until his death in 2004. At the time of her birth, she was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne; as of 2025, she is 58th.
Early life
Alexandra was born at 11:20 am on Christmas Day 1936 at 3 Belgrave Square, London. Her parents were Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra; her grandmother, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia; and both of her maternal aunts, Countess Elizabeth of Törring-Jettenbach and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia. She received the name Christabel because she was born on Christmas Day, like her aunt Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. Her birth was the last to have the tradition of having the Home Secretary present to verify the birth of potential heirs to the throne. John Simon was present and was the last one to do so.As a male-line granddaughter of the British monarch, she was styled as a British princess with the prefix Her Royal Highness. At the time of her birth she was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her cousins Elizabeth and Margaret, her uncle the Duke of Gloucester, her father the Duke of Kent, and her elder brother Prince Edward. She was born two weeks after the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII.
Alexandra was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on 9 February 1937, and her godparents were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ; the Queen of Norway ; Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark ; Princess Olga of Yugoslavia ; the Princess Beatrice ; the Earl of Athlone ; and Count Karl Theodor of Törring-Jettenbach. Of her godparents, only the King and Queen and Lord Athlone were present.
Alexandra spent most of her childhood at her family's country house, Coppins, in Buckinghamshire. During the Second World War she also lived at Badminton with her widowed grandmother Queen Mary. Her father was killed in an aeroplane crash in Caithness, Scotland, on 25 August 1942, whilst serving in the Royal Air Force. Alexandra has the distinction of being the first British princess to have attended a boarding school, Heathfield School near Ascot. She then studied in Paris. She was also trained at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Marriage and personal life
On 24 April 1963, she married The Hon. Angus James Bruce Ogilvy, second son of David Ogilvy, 12th Earl of Airlie, and Lady Alexandra Coke, at Westminster Abbey. Ogilvy presented Alexandra with an engagement ring made of a cabochon sapphire set in gold and surrounded by diamonds on both sides. The wedding ceremony was attended by the royal family and was broadcast worldwide on television, watched by an estimated 200 million people.The bride wore a wedding gown of Valenciennes lace, with matching veil and train, designed by John Cavanagh. She made her way with her brother, the Duke of Kent, from Kensington Palace to the church. The bridesmaids included Princess Anne and Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, and the best man was Peregrine Fairfax. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, conducted the service. Angus Ogilvy declined the Queen's offer to be created an earl upon marriage, so their children carry no titles.
Angus Ogilvy was knighted in 1988, later being sworn of the Privy Council in 1997. Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy had two children:
- James Robert Bruce Ogilvy. He married Julia Caroline Rawlinson on 30 July 1988 at St Mary's Church in Saffron Walden, Essex. The couple have two children, Flora and Alexander.
- Marina Victoria Alexandra Ogilvy. She married Paul Julian Mowatt on 2 February 1990; they divorced on 15 October 1997. They have two children, Zenouska and Christian.
Activities
Beginning in the late 1950s, Alexandra carried out an extensive programme of engagements in support of the Queen, both in the United Kingdom and overseas. Taking part in roughly 120 engagements each year, she was one of the most active members of the royal family. She carried out 110 engagements in 2012. However, in April 2013, she cancelled her engagements due to polymyalgia rheumatica. As of 2022, she is still listed as a working member of the royal family, attending numerous ceremonial and charitable engagements.In 1959, she carried out an extensive tour of Australia, and attended the Queensland Centenary Celebrations. The Alexandra Waltz was composed for this visit by radio announcer Russ Tyson, and television musical director, Clyde Collins. It was sung for the princess by teen-aged Gay Kahler, who later changed her name to Gay Kayler. In 1961, Alexandra visited Hong Kong and made a visit to Aberdeen Fish Market, Lok Ma Chau police station and So Uk Estate, a public housing complex. Alexandra returned to Australia in 1967 for a private holiday, but also carried out engagements in Canberra and Melbourne. The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane is named in her honour.
Alexandra represented the Queen when Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, and opened the first Parliament on 3 October. Later overseas tours included visits to Canada, Italy, Oman, Hungary, Norway, Japan, Thailand, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. She launched the New Zealand Leander-class frigate HMNZS Waikato at Harland and Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1965. Alexandra opened the Victoria-to-Brixton section of London Underground's Victoria line on 23 July 1971. In May 1973 she was introduced to both teams and presented the Scottish Cup to winners Rangers in the 1973 Scottish Cup Final. She again represented the Queen at the celebrations of independence from the United Kingdom of Saint Lucia in 1979.
Alexandra opened the new hospital in Harlow, Essex, named in her honour on 27 April 1965. The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust was announced by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in September 2019 to be part of the government's new health infrastructure programme to build a new hospital.
Alexandra served as chancellor of Lancaster University from its foundation in 1964 until she relinquished the post in 2004. She also served as the first chancellor of the University of Mauritius. She is also an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Faculty of Anæsthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Royal College of Physicians. She is also the president of Alexandra Rose Day, which was founded in honour of her great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra. She was also patron of The Royal School, Hampstead. She was president of WWF-UK until 2011.
Until it was abolished in 2013, Alexandra received £225,000 per year from the Civil List to cover the cost of official expenses, although as with the other members of the royal family the Queen repaid this amount to HM Treasury. Alexandra lives at Thatched House Lodge in Richmond, London, a Crown property purchased on a 150-year lease from the Crown Estate Commissioners by Angus Ogilvy after their wedding in 1963. She also has use of a grace-and-favour apartment at St James's Palace in London.
Alexandra is the patron of the Blackie Foundation Trust, a charity dedicated to the promotion of research and education in homoeopathy. She is also a patron of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals; the English National Opera; the London Philharmonic Choir; the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Wigmore Hall; the Florence Nightingale Foundation; the not-for-profit housing association Anchor; the charity Independent Age; St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham, England; Core, a National charity in London dedicated to funding research into digestive diseases and which also publishes information leaflets on the most common diseases of the gut and liver; the Nature in Art Trust; and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the oldest drama school in the English-speaking world. She has been the patron of the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton since 1954 and of Alzheimer's Society since 1990. She is also the royal patron of Children and Families Across Borders, a charity dedicated to reuniting children who have been separated from their families. She is patron of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, which received its royal style in 2012 during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In her role as president of Sightsavers UK, she visited Washington D.C. in October 2016 to attend the Neglected Tropical Diseases NGDO Network conference partnership reception. In November 2016, one month ahead of Alexandra's 80th birthday, the Queen held a reception at Buckingham Palace in honour of the work of her charities.
In May 2023, Alexandra appeared alongside other working members of the royal family in photos in the Throne Room and on Buckingham Palace balcony following the coronation of King Charles III, which she had attended earlier that day. In February 2024, she began using a wheelchair; she attended a thanksgiving service for Constantine II of Greece in the same month. In June, she joined King Charles for a church service in London taking place in the Queen's Chapel, sitting alongside the King to mark the chapel's 400th anniversary celebration.