Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, carried an extraordinary burden for the final years of her husband’s life – choosing never to tell Prince Henry that their eldest son had died.
The deeply personal decision followed the tragic death of Prince William of Gloucester in a plane crash in 1972, at a time when the Duke of Gloucester’s own health had deteriorated dramatically after suffering a series of strokes.
Prince Henry, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary, had already experienced more than his fair share of personal tragedy. His elder brother, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in 1936, changing the course of royal history, while his younger brother, Prince George, Duke of Kent, was killed in an air crash during the Second World War.
In later life, the Duke’s health declined rapidly. In January 1965, while returning from the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, Prince Henry suffered a stroke that caused the car in which he and Princess Alice were travelling to crash. The Duke was thrown from the vehicle, while the Duchess sustained facial injuries.
The stroke marked the beginning of years of poor health. Prince Henry experienced further strokes, eventually becoming wheelchair-bound and losing much of his ability to speak.
Just two years before the Duke’s death, the family was struck by another devastating loss.
Prince William of Gloucester, aged just 30, was an accomplished pilot and President of the British Aviation Centre. On 28 August 1972, he was competing in the Goodyear International Air Trophy at Halfpenny Green Airfield in Staffordshire when disaster struck.
Flying a Piper Cherokee Arrow alongside fellow pilot Vyrell Mitchell, Prince William’s aircraft crashed shortly after take-off after striking a tree. Both men were killed.
Three local boys rushed to the wreckage in an attempt to rescue those inside but were driven back by the intense flames. Firefighters arrived within minutes, but the blaze was so fierce that it took around two hours to bring under control. The victims were later identified through dental records.
The tragedy shocked the Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth II cancelled planned engagements connected with the Munich Olympic Games, while the Duke of Edinburgh returned early from Germany to attend his nephew’s funeral.
Princess Alice was then faced with an impossible decision.
Fearing that the devastating news could further endanger her husband’s fragile health, she chose not to tell Prince Henry that their son had died.
Messages of condolence poured in from around the world, including one from Prime Minister Edward Heath, yet the Duchess continued to shield her husband from the tragedy.
Writing in her memoirs, The Memoirs of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, first published in 1981, she reflected on the loss of her son.
She said: “I was completely stunned and have never been quite the same since, though I have tried to persuade myself that it was better to have known and lost him than never to have had him at all.”
Princess Alice later revealed that she never directly told Prince Henry about Prince William’s death, although she acknowledged that he may have become aware of it through television coverage.
Prince William was buried at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore.
Just two years later, in 1974, Prince Henry died and was laid to rest alongside his son, bringing to a close one of the Royal Family’s most poignant and little-known stories.
