History

The Not Forgotten Association: Close to the Royal Family’s hearts for a century

The Royal Family are associated with a large number of organisations and charities, with these relationships often dating back many years. This is particularly true of the Not Forgotten Association, for whom a garden party will be held at Buckingham Palace on 23 May, to be attended by HRH The Duchess of Gloucester. The origins of the association began in 1919, when Marta Cunningham, an American…
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History

The Tower of London celebrates as baby ravens make their debut

It’s said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London then the building, and the kingdom it protects, will fall. So there’s no surprise that there are celebrations all round at the famous royal landmark as four chicks have been born within its ancient walls – the first to arrive there in thirty years. To make the arrival even more patriotic the chicks actually hatched on…
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History

Queen Victoria's presents to her grandchildren

As the ‘Grandmother of Europe’, as Queen Victoria was popularly termed, her very numerous grandchildren could, of course, expect to receive a variety of charming presents for their birthdays, just as we might treasure things sent to us by our grandmothers. These presents are in themselves interesting because they lend insight into the kind of gifts the Queen considered would give pleasure to…
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History

A German Princess's memories of Queen Victoria

To Queen Victoria, she was ‘dear Marie Erbach’. That was what the Queen called Princess Marie of Battenberg, later Princess zu Erbach-Schönberg, whose memoirs first appeared in English in 1925, printed by London publishers George Allen & Unwin. Princess Marie…
HistoryInsight

Finding Queen Victoria's perfume

Queen Victoria’s use of perfume is a subject of interest because of what it reveals about both her personal toilette and tastes. An equivalent in scent perhaps, of that distinctive signature we know so well on paper, adding an ‘I’ for ‘Imperatrix’ after she was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. This perfume would have been part of the Queen’s daily dressing process. At Osborne, the…
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