Demise of the Crown: #21: Sandringham to St George's (Part I)

As the official public record since 1665, The Gazette has been recording the deaths of monarchs for over three centuries. As part of our ‘Demise of the Crown’ series, historian Russell Malloch looks through the archives at The Gazette’s reporting of demise events following the death of Queen Alexandra.

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Photograph of King Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra

Sandringham to London

The death of Edward VII’s widow, Queen Alexandra, in November 1925 led to the first funeral for a queen consort since 1849, when The Gazette reported the modest service at Windsor to grieve for the loss of William IV’s widow, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.

The ceremonial for George V’s mother was not gazetted, which reflected the general policy that had applied since 1910, of not placing any accounts of royal funerals in the official public record, other than those for the sovereign.

There was therefore no record of the services in St George’s Chapel, or the burials in the Georgian crypt after the passing in 1917 of the King’s aunt Louise, Duchess of Connaught, or his uncle Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. Or after the death of Christian’s wife, Princess Helena in 1923. These events were, however, noticed in the Court Circular, and reported in the press.

The Gazette did publish the bulletin that Alexandra’s medical attendants sent to the home secretary, which confirmed the time at which she “passed away peacefully” (Gazette issue 33106). Reports about the post mortem bulletins had previously been limited to the sovereign, but similar notices were gazetted during George V’s reign to record the death of the King’s sisters, the Princess Royal in 1931 (Gazette issue 33678) and Princess Victoria in 1935 (Gazette issue 34227).

Queen Alexandra expired at Sandringham House in Norfolk, and so provided a reminder of what happened in 1892 after her eldest son died there. Her body was taken to London, where a memorial service and lying in state was organised in Westminster Abbey, before the final committal service at Windsor. The Queen was later buried in the nave of St George’s Chapel, beside her husband Edward, and so in sight of her Garter banner, and not far from the Albert Memorial Chapel which housed her son’s remains.

Memorials were also set up for Alexandra and Edward in the chancel of St Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham, where their son Alexander was buried in 1871. The additions to the small Norfolk church consisted of two plaques, with round marble medallions, bearing royal portraits, and with a suitable inscription.

Actors’ pall

While Alexandra’s catafalque lay in Westminster Abbey, it was covered by the royal standard, and by a pall that was presented to the abbey in 1920 by the Actors’ Church Union, in memory of members of the theatrical profession who gave their lives in the war, and was intended to be used “on those solemn occasions when the last tribute was paid to the illustrious dead.”

The Actors’ pall was decorated with heraldic symbols, consisting of a crowned portcullis and Tudor rose; the coats of arms of the sovereign and the abbey, and the personal arms of Herbert Ryle, who was the dean of Westminster, and of the Order of the Bath, at the time the pall was presented.

The King had seen the pall being used five years before his mother’s death, at the burial rites for the Unknown Warrior in November 1920, which was an event that was organised on an imposing scale, and somewhat similar to that for a demise of the crown. The King acted as the chief mourner at the service in Westminster Abbey, when the pall bearers included David Beatty and Douglas Haig, two of the most senior naval and army commanders during the first world war, as well as General Lord Byng who, as Captain Byng of the 10^th Hussars, had assisted at the Duke of Clarence’s funeral in 1892.

The Actors’ pall was displayed at George V’s lying in state in 1936, but was not used at the Westminster Hall ceremonies for his son in 1952, or for his granddaughter in 2022. It did, however, cover his widow’s casket when Queen Mary lay in state in 1953.

Royal honours

The King conferred the Victorian Order on some of the foreign relatives who attended his mother’s funeral in 1925, with the grand cross (GCVO) being allocated to Alexandra’s nephews Axel of Denmark and George of Greece, and the Crown Prince of Romania. The King also presented the Royal Victorian Medal to the men of the Grenadier Guards and the Royal Horse Artillery who supported his mother’s coffin as the snow fell during the procession in London.

Over the next few weeks, further honours were granted to those who helped the Queen towards the end of her life. The Victorian Medal was awarded to her nurse Annie Benson, and the prestigious Royal Victorian Chain was given to Lord Howe (Gazette issue 33116), who had been Alexandra’s chamberlain for more than two decades.

The honours included medals for a footman, page, wine butler and other members of her household, while the New Year list of 1926 recognised the work of two pall bearers, as Henry Streatfeild, the Queen’s private secretary was advanced to GCVO, and the commander’s cross (CVO) was given to her equerry Edward Seymour. The rector who conducted the preliminary services for Alexandra at Sandringham was later promoted within the ranks of the order.

Royal precedents

King George V attended several family funerals, and before the war he was present at the St George’s Chapel service for his brother-in-law, the Duke of Fife, in 1912, and witnessed the Westminster Abbey ritual for his uncle, the Duke of Argyll, in 1914.

It was impractical for the King to attend the funeral of his cousin Prince Maurice of Battenberg at Ypres, after he was killed in action in October 1914 (Gazette issue 28957), but he was able to hear the service for Lord Roberts in St Paul’s Cathedral in November of that fateful year.

Roberts was a knight of the Garter, but the King’s presence recognised the field-marshal’s eminent military career, rather than his link with the order. It was also an exception to the rule, as the sovereign was usually represented by a senior member of his household at similar events for deceased knights of the Garter, as in 1917 when the lord chamberlain went to Arundel to mark the passing of the Duke of Norfolk, the earl marshal who helped to organise the funerals and coronations that followed the demise of the crown in 1901 and 1910.

George V continued the practice of sending relatives to foreign funerals, rather than attending in person. Buckingham Palace’s approach was illustrated by the arrangements for the eight monarchs who were photographed at the time of Edward VII’s funeral in 1910. The first to die was Frederick of Denmark, and the King sent his nephew Prince Arthur of Connaught to Roskilde Cathedral in 1912. One year later Prince Alexander of Teck performed a similar role in Athens at the funeral of George of the Hellenes.

Two of the eight expired during the 1930s, although one had lost his throne by the time he died. King George sent his ambassador to the Portuguese republic, Sir Claud Russell (Gazette issue 33740), to the service for the ex-King Manoel in Lisbon in 1932, while the Prince of Wales represented his father in Brussels in 1934, after the death of Albert of the Belgians.

Three of the eight monarchs departed in the 1940s, but in circumstances where no British representation was either desirable or possible. In April 1941 the sovereign – by now King George VI – was represented by his brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester, at the London requiem mass for Alfonso of Spain, while nothing was done to mark the passing of the German Emperor in June 1941, or Ferdinand of Bulgaria in 1948.

The last of the 1910 kings to expire was Haakon of Norway, and at his funeral in Oslo in 1957 the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, sent her uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, while the Duke of Edinburgh attended the memorial service in Westminster Abbey on his wife’s behalf.

Seen in the light of these precedents, it is remarkable that foreign monarchs continued to travel to England to mark the demise of the crown, rather than send an ambassador or family member.

Royal Family

After the first world war, the United Kingdom witnessed the funeral of a queen consort on the death of Queen Alexandra in 1925, but apart from that, most of the inter-war losses were matters of a personal nature, rather than being of any national significance.

The first post-war funeral was a sad affair, and took place at Sandringham in January 1919 after the death of the King’s 13-year-old son, Prince John, while Windsor was the preferred venue for most of the other inter-war services.

St George’s and the Georgian crypt at Windsor were used during the 1920s after the passing of the King’s great-aunt Helena in 1923, as well as after the death of Queen Mary’s brother and nephew, the Marquess of Cambridge in 1927, and Lord Trematon in 1928. The same royal vault was also opened in 1926 for Princess Frederica of Hanover, whose father (King George V of Hanover) and infant daughter were buried there.

Rule of 1928

The post-mortem procedures at Windsor were revised in 1928, when it was decided that the coffins which had been placed in the royal vault since the start of George V’s reign should be removed and re-interred in a new burial ground beside Victoria and Albert’s personal mausoleum.

In October 1928 Albert Baillie, who had served as dean of Windsor and register of the Order of the Garter since 1917, explained why the Georgian structure was being disturbed:

“Owing to the fact that the vault under St George’s Chapel was getting full, and that some of the members of the royal family preferred burial in the earth to burial in a vault, the King has had a small and beautiful burial ground made behind the mausoleum in the grounds of Frogmore. This was consecrated by the bishop of Oxford on September 24. In future only the sovereigns and those in the direct line of succession will be buried in the vault. Other members of the royal family, after a service in St George’s Chapel, will be taken to the new ground. As the relations of some of those who have been lately buried wished their bodies to lie in the new ground, the coffins have been removed from the vault and placed there, under the superintendence of the dean of Windsor.”₁

Despite what Dean Baillie said, the royal vault was far from full. There were, however, other points to consider, including the wisdom of addressing future need, just as George III had done when he recognised that his large family would want suitable resting places in due course. King George V had children, some with growing families, but in terms of its immediate effect, the 1928 change mainly impacted on Queen Mary’s relations.

The Queen’s brothers had stayed in England during the war, and there were obvious practical issues, even if her relatives had wanted to be united with their ancestors in Germany during the 1920s. Three members of the English branch of the Teck family were therefore moved to Frogmore in October 1928: the Queen’s brothers Prince Francis of Teck and the Marquess of Cambridge, and her nephew Lord Trematon.

The remains of the King’s Prussian aunt Louise, Duchess of Connaught, were also taken down the hill to Frogmore, as were those of Princess Helena and her husband Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, and finally Prince Henry of Battenberg’s son, Lord Leopold Mountbatten. As with the Tecks, there was no prospect, as well as no desire, of returning the remains of any of the King’s other relatives to their Battenberg or Hohenzollern ancestral lands. One exception to the 1928 rule was Frederica of Hanover, who was allowed to rest in the royal vault beside her father and infant daughter.

The Georgian crypt below the old Tomb House (later the Albert Memorial Chapel) fell out of favour after the 1920s, even for those who, in Dean Baillie’s words, were in the direct line of succession. It became apparent that the vault would only be used to house the coffins as a temporary measure, before they found a final resting place, either in St George’s Chapel, or in the graveyard at Frogmore, or at some other location.

The remains of the King’s sister Louise were initially placed in the vault, but were removed in 1931 to lie beside those of her husband, the Duke of Fife, on their Mar Estate in Scotland. The bodies of several other relatives, even the daughter of a sovereign (as in the case of Princess Victoria), were taken to Frogmore after the service in St George’s Chapel.

In fact, no permanent burial has taken place in the Georgian vault, and no person in the direct line of succession to the crown had been laid to rest under the Tomb House, since the rule of 1928 was introduced.

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Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III

Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.

Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.

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About the author

Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.

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Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)

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