Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont

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Princess Helen
Tyrol, Austria
Burial8 September 1922
, Austria
Spouse
(m. 1882; died 1884)
Issue
Names
English: Helen Frederica Augusta
German: Helene Friederike Auguste
HouseWaldeck and Pyrmont
FatherGeorge Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont
MotherPrincess Helena of Nassau
SignaturePrincess Helen's signature

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont,

GCStJ (Helen Frederica Augusta; 17 February 1861 – 1 September 1922), later Duchess of Albany,[2] was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his first wife, Princess Helena of Nassau
.

Family

Helen was born in

Arolsen, capital of Waldeck principality, in Germany. She was the sister of Friedrich, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont; Marie, the first wife of William II of Württemberg; and of Emma, queen consort of William III of the Netherlands (and mother of Queen Wilhelmina
).

Marriage

Helen on her wedding day, 1882

Along with Emma and a third sister, Pauline, Helen was considered as a second wife for William III of the Netherlands. She later met with Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria, at the suggestion of his mother. The two became engaged in November 1881.

On 27 April 1882, Leopold and Helen married in

hemophiliac Leopold's death from a fall in Cannes
, France, in March 1884. At the time of Leopold's death, Helen was pregnant with their second child.

The couple had two children:

Personality and social work

Portrait by Carl Rudolph Sohn

According to the memoirs of Helen's daughter,

Oxford University
. Helen maintained these friendships for the rest of her life.

In 1894, Helen was one of the founders of the Deptford Fund, which instigated many projects to help the local community in Deptford. In 1899, Helen opened the Albany Institute. This later expanded into a combined community/performance centre with the theatre venue known as the Albany Empire. A centre of 1970s anti-fascist activity and Rock Against Racism, the Empire and Institute buildings were destroyed in an arson attack in 1978. A new Albany Theatre was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1982.[4]

Helen was also involved in several hospital charities and with those dedicated to ending human trafficking. During World War I, she organised much of her charity work along with that of her sister-in-law Princess Beatrice and niece Princess Marie Louise to avoid the not-uncommon problem of conflicting (and sometimes misguided) royal war-work projects.[5]

Later life

After Leopold's death, Helen and her two children, Alice and Charles Edward, continued to reside at Claremont House. After the death of her nephew, the

Prince Alexander of Teck in 1904 became a sister-in-law of Queen Mary
.

Helen died on 1 September 1922 of a heart attack in Hinterriss in Tyrol, Austria, while visiting her beloved son, Charles Edward. Through her son, she is the great-grandmother of the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf.

On her death her estate was valued at £177,312 (resworn £183,053 and equivalent to £7.2 million in 2022).[6]

The Chiswick streets Waldeck Road and Pyrmont Road were named in honour of her.

Issue

Image Name Birth Death Notes
Princess Alice of Albany 25 February 1883 3 January 1981 later HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (and sister-in-law to Mary of Teck); had issue.
Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany 19 July 1884 6 March 1954 Born four months after his father's death; known as Charlie; later reigning
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
).

Ancestry

Notes

  1. .
  2. ^ "Princess Helen, Duchess of Albany (1861-1922), Wife of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany; daughter of Prince George Victor of Waldeck-Pyrmont". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  3. Anne Lindsay and Florence Anson
    .
  4. ^ "History".
  5. ^ Princess Marie Louise (née Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenberg), My Memories of Six Reigns (London: Evans Brothers, 1956)
  6. ^ Evans, Rob; Pegg, David (18 July 2022). "£187m of Windsor family wealth hidden in secret royal wills". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2022.

External links