Princess Alice of Battenberg

Princess Alice of Battenberg was born on February 25, 1885 at Windsor Castle, in the presence of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. She was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, both grandchildren of Queen Victoria. She was a Hessian princess by birth and a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was congenitally deaf, but learned to speak and lip-read in English and German. She married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark on October 6, 1903 in Darmstadt, Germany. He was the fourth son of King George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. They had five children: four daughters and one son. They lived in Greece until 1917, when most of the Greek royal family was exiled after a military coup. They returned to Greece in 1920, but were forced to leave again in 1922 after the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War. They settled in France, where they lived in reduced circumstances. In 1930, Princess Alice was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed to a sanatorium in Switzerland by her husband. She underwent various treatments, including electroshock therapy. She lived separately from her husband until his death in 1944. She recovered from her mental illness and devoted herself to religious and charitable causes. She converted to Greek Orthodoxy in 1928 and later founded a Greek Orthodox nursing order of nuns known as the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. She stayed in Athens during the Second World War, despite the Nazi occupation of Greece. She helped many people in need, especially Jewish refugees whom she hid in her home. For this act of courage and compassion, she was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem, in 1994. After the war, she continued her charity work in Greece until 1967, when a military dictatorship took over the country. She then moved to London at the invitation of her son Prince Philip and his wife Queen Elizabeth II. She lived at Buckingham Palace until her death on December 5, 1969. She was initially buried at Windsor Castle, but her remains were later transferred to the Church of Mary Magdalene at the Russian Orthodox convent on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, according to her wish. She was buried next to her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was killed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and later canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church. Princess Alice was a remarkable woman who faced many challenges and hardships in her life. She was a devoted mother, a compassionate humanitarian, and a deeply spiritual person. She was also an ancestor of several European royals, including King Charles III (her grandson), King Felipe VI of Spain (her great-grandson), and King Constantine II of Greece (her son-in-law).