Monarchy New Zealand
Volume 4 Issue 4 The Newsletter of The Monarchist League of New Zealand Incorporated November 1999
Patrons: Hon Sir Peter Tapsell, KNZM MBE; Ian Revell, MP ISSN 1174-8435
In this issue
Editorial
In July John Kennedy, the son of John F Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America, died with his wife and sister-in-law in a plane crash while on their way to a family wedding.
Whilst close comparisons would be inappropriate, in the immediate aftermath of the accident there were parallels with the reaction to the death of the Princess of Wales. Though Diana Princess of Wales was a members of the Royal Family, and represented an ancient monarchy, known and respected world-wide, John Kennedy junior represented the United States' equivalent.
Since the death of President Kennedy the Kennedy family has substituted for many Americans the Royal Family they so precipitately rejected two hundred years ago. Yet the Kennedy's were a strange choice of family to accord such a status.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888-1969), the founder of the family's prominence, made a fortune in various nefarious business activities in Boston. He entered local Democrat politics, and ended a career in public service as the pro-German Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1938-40.
Joseph had nine children. The eldest, Joseph Patrick (1915-44), died in the Second World War. His younger brother, John Fitzgerald (1917-63), served in the House of Representatives and then the Senate, and was President of the United States 1961-63. As a Roman Catholic, his chances of election had been rated small by many commentators, and he was in fact elected with the smallest popular majority of any president for over a century.
During a short reign Kennedy narrowly averted war with the Soviet Union over the placing of missiles in Cuba, and ordered the abortive Bay of Pigs landing. He also escalated the level of American involvement in Vietnam. On a more positive note he set the scene for the Moon landings. John F Kennedy was to become more popular after his assassination than he was when living, the fate of many a slain leader.
The president had appointed his brother Robert Fitzgerald (1925-68) Attorney-General in 1961. In 1964 Robert was elected to the Senate. He shared the fate of his elder brother, falling to an assassins bullet in 1969. The youngest and sole surviving son, Edward Moore (born 1932) was to succeed to his elder brother's Senate seat in 1962. His presidential prospects were destroyed in an accident in 1969, in which a secretary died in circumstances which reflected badly on the senator.
John Fitzgerald (1960-99), son of the President, had no children. His sister, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born 1957) is the senior surviving member of the family.
The American system of government is ironically one of the purist forms of monarchy to be found today. An American president resembles a Roman emperor in more ways than one, being the focus of patronage and even sycophancy.
News in Brief
League Lunch
The Monarchist League of New Zealand will be holding a lunch for members and supporters on Sunday 14th November, on the occasion of the birthday of HRH The Prince of Wales.
This is a valuable opportunity for newer members to meet the Council and fellow members.
Lunch commences at 12.30 pm, and will be at The Springs Garden Restaurant, 956 Great North Road, Western Springs, Auckland. Members are asked to be at the venue by 12.15.
There is a charge of $22.50, and attendees are asked to use the enclose form to order tickets (which will be name-tags for members to identify themselves at the restaurant). Tickets will also be sold on the day, for which attendees are asked to bring cash so that one payment may be made to management.
Those wishing to attend are asked to write (using the enclosed form), telephone, fax or e-mail the Editor (contact details at the end of this edition of Monarchy New Zealand), or any other member of the Council, by 5 pm Friday 5th November.
Chairman visits London
Merv Tilsley, Chairman of the Monarchist League of New Zealand, visited London in August, during a private trip to the United Kingdom.
In the course of his visit, Mr Tilsley met Donald Foreman, Secretary-General of the Monarchist League and the Constitutional Monarchy Association.
The League likes to maintain contacts with kindred organisations overseas, particularly in the Commonwealth. The dangers which threaten the monarchy are to some extent international, and monarchists world-wide should support each other.
APEC in Auckland
In September New Zealand was host to the annual APEC conference. This grouping of 21 countries from Asia and the Pacific rim was touted as the biggest ever international gathering in this country.
Commentators would have done well to remember that the 1995 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting took place in Auckland. Commonwealth summit meetings take place biennially. The USA, China, and Russia are members of APEC. However with 54 members the Commonwealth remains the more important grouping. Seven countries are members of both organisations.
Twenty-two of the 54 Commonwealth countries are monarchies, compared to 8 of 21 APEC.
The visiting ruler accorded the most royal (and dare I add, sycophantic?) reception was Bill Clinton, President of the USA. Auckland was sanitised, with over 2,000 police brought in to keep a strict watch on proceedings. By way of contrast, the CHOGM in 1995 was a model of a family get-together, with little fuss or heavy-handed security.
New bravery and gallantry medals
On the 21st September the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Jenny Shipley, announced a new series of gallantry and bravery awards. These will be awarded for military and civilian situations respectively, in place of the British awards which were awarded until 1996.
More details will appear in the next issue of Monarchy New Zealand.
Discount on new royal book
Forrester Books is offering members of the League Edward and Sophie: A Royal Wedding at a special price of $22.50 (inclusive of postage and packaging). This book, by Judy Parkinson, was published earlier in the year to mark the wedding of the Earl and Countess of Wessex. It normally retails at $39.95 (its cover price is £15.99).
The book is available from Forrester Books, Private Bag 10-2907, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland.
"Night of Knights" in new year
The League is planning a formal dinner for the early part of the new year. This will be for members of the Monarchist League and for knights and dames resident in New Zealand. Further information will be given in the next newsletter.
Royal Diary
CHOGM
Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, will pay a State Visit to South Africa in November, to coincide with the 1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Durban.
The State Visit will last from the 9th to the 11th of November, and CHOGM will be opened on the 12th of November. The royal couple will undertake other engagements during the meeting.
From the 7th to the 9th November The Queen will pay a State Visit to Ghana, her first since 1961. After the conclusion of her visit to South Africa Her Majesty will pay her first ever State Visit to Mozambique.
Mozambique was the first country to join the Commonwealth (in 1995) which had never been administered by Britain or any other Commonwealth member.
Call to cut Queen's role
The Queen should be replaced as head of the Commonwealth by a Third World dignitary as part of a drive to sever the links with the Empire, according to a British think-tank whose patron is Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Foreign Policy Centre reportedly recommended, in a report released on the 27th of April, that Prince Charles should not take over the role when the Queen dies, but a political figurehead should be chosen.
The centre also advocates annual elections for a Commonwealth president to represent the views of member states, and calls for the organisation to be moved out of London to emphasise that it has broken links with its imperial past.
A new Commonwealth Forum, involving ambassadors from all 53 member states, should be set up to discuss issues of common concern, it said.
The policy centre launched a six-month inquiry to demonstrate why it believed the Commonwealth needed the biggest shake-up in its history.
Its interim report suggested changes, setting out a new declaration of democracy and human rights, and appointing an "enforcer" to investigate any breaches.
A permanent council of high commissioners should also be created to act quickly on crises between biannual meetings of heads of government.
John Maxwell
Rhys-Jones Coat of Arms
The Rhys-Jones family of HRH The Countess of Wessex, have received a grant of arms from the Crown. Her grandfather, a keen genealogist, had adopted the coat of arms of Elystan Glodrydd, Prince of Ferrig, and the family used this for many years.
The grant follows the design of the unofficial arms. The College of Arms was however unable to confirm the family's descent from Glodrydd.
The coat of arms, which will be used by the Countess in conjunction with the royal arms as borne by the Earl, consists of a lion on a red and blue background.
Australian referendum
Australian referendum
The Australian republican referendum is set for early November. Whatever the outcome, it is likely that large sectors of the Australian media will be increasingly hostile to the monarchy. If the republicans get what they seek, they will adopt a "gloating" attitude; if they lose they will be poor losers.
Since 1901 forty-two referenda have been held in Australia to amend the Constitution. Eight have succeeded, the last in 1977. All the successful votes had bipartisan political support, which most of the others lacked.
Even where bipartisan support was evident, the outcome was not always what the political parties wanted, Votes for simultaneous Senate and House of Representatives elections in 1977, and for allocating authority for aviation in 1937 both failed, although the proposals had the support of the major parties.
The republic is supported by the Australian Labour Party. National is opposed, and while the Liberals no longer actively oppose the republic, they are by no means in favour of it.
On the basis of history the outcome of the referendum should be clear- the Australians do not like changes to their system of government. Unfortunately, in this referenda we have to contend with a partisan news media, large elements of which belong to the republican Rupert Murdoch, or are happy to support a republic for their own reasons.
Further news from Australia
Mark Chipperfield, writing in the Daily Telegraph (London) of 3rd August reported that the campaign for an Australian republic suffered a setback with the defection to the monarchist cause of one of its main proponents.
Peter Reith, a senior member of the Australian Government, said he now believed that the republic model on offer was "seriously flawed" and "a third rate compromise" which could threaten Australia's democracy.
"To vote Yes [for a republic] would be the same as giving away blank cheques", he said. "It would be folly to vote for change when the consequences of the change are not clear".
Mr Reith, who is Minister for Workplace Relations, told voters that they should not be hurried into voting for a constitutional model which was less than perfect. His comments brought a furious reaction from Malcolm Turnbull, the leading republican campaigner, who said "This is just part of his usual destructive, cynical tactics to hold back constitutional reform in Australia".
Nevertheless, the defection of such a senior political figure sent shock waves through republican ranks because it highlighted a serious flaw in their efforts to achieve an Australian republic by 1st January, 2001, namely that the majority of Australians would prefer to elect their president, if one were to replace the Queen.
Mr Reith is not the first formerly committed republican to join the ranks of the monarchists. Phil Cleary, a radical Labour figure in Victoria, told a recent meeting of young monarchists that he would "not cross the street to spit" at the republican model currently being proposed.
Republicans are still reeling from a number of new opinion polls which show that support for an Australian republic is slipping well below the 50 per cent required in the referendum. According to one poll, only 41% of the electorate now supports a republic, the lowest figure since November 1993.
Young people rally to cause
Support for a republic among people aged 18-34 has fallen to 46 per cent, according to the latest opinion poll- a nine per cent slide since the beginning of the year.
Forty-three per cent of this age group said they will vote to keep the Queen, and 16% are still undecided. To succeed, the referendum needs an overall majority across Australia and a majority in at least four of the six states. Voting is compulsory.
Julian Leeser, a 23-year old Sydney law student, is typical of the young people disenchanted with the prospect of a republic. "I'm proud to call myself a monarchist", he told the Sunday Telegraph (London). "I've always thought that a constitutional monarchy was the best form of government available in the world and I see no reason to change my views now".
Like her monarchist colleagues, Miss Heidi Zwar, a 23-year old law student from Canberra, believes that many of the republican arguments- such as the idea that the monarchy appeals only to older people of British stock- have been exposed as myths. She also concluded that a monarchy was an ideal constitutional arrangement for Australia.
Overseas News
Death of King of Morocco
His Majesty King Hassan II of Morocco has died. The King, who was the 17th ruler of the Alaonite dynasty, suffered a heart attack at the age of 70.
The King of Morocco is the last independent sovereign of the once powerful Barbary states of North Africa. His realm comprised the Kingdoms of Fez and of Morocco (incorporated 1548), and the territories of Tafilet and Sus. These latter states only recognised the King as Prince of True Believers, the most powerful of the Shereefs, or descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. No republican government could hope to unify such a country.
The late King spent most of his time at the Royal Palace, Rabat. He was occasionally to be found at the traditional capitals of Fez and Marrakesh, or at Skhirat.
King Hassan, who succeeded his father in 1961, a few years after Morocco was reunited after many years of international division, had suffered numerous assassination attempts and threats from revolutionary elements. But he always sought to preserve his kingdom's unity in the face of internal and external threats.
King Hassan is succeeded by HRH Crown Prince Sidi Mohammad (35), as King Mohammad VI.
Poet Laureate appointed
Andrew Motion, BA MLitt FRSL, has succeeded Ted Hughes, OM OBE, who died last year, as Poet Laureate. Motion has been Professor of Creative Writing of the University of East Anglia since 1995. He was Editor of Poetry Review 1981-83, and on the editorial staff of the publishers Chatto and Windus 1983-89.
The office of Poet Laureate dates from 1599, and has been honorary since 1843, though the incumbent does receive an honorarium of £72. Previous laureates have included Sir John Betjeman, CBE (1972-84), Cecil Day-Lewis, CBE (1967-72), and John Masefield, OM (1930-67).
Earlier important holders of the post included Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850-90), William Wordsworth (1843-50), John Dryden (1670-88), and Ben Johnson (1619-37). The first was Samuel Daniel (1599-1619).
It was regrettable that the announcement of the appointment of Motion should have come from 10 Downing Street, rather than from Buckingham Palace. The implication was that the Sovereign had no choice in the selection of the Poet Laureate, who is a member of The Queen's Household.
In recent years a New Zealand "Poet Laureate" has arisen. This title is bestowed by a company, and has no official status.
Monegasque celebrations
In May the Principality of Monaco marked the fiftieth anniversary of the accession of His Serene Highness the Sovereign Prince, Rainier III. Prince Rainier is the third most senior ruling sovereign, after Norodom Sihanouk, who first became King of Cambodia in 1941, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who succeeded in 1946. Her Majesty The Queen is the next most senior, and will celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Monaco, which covers a mere 481 acres (195 hectares), has been ruled by the Grimaldi family since they left their native Genoa in 1297. Lords of Monaco from 1331, they became princes in 1612. The independence of Monaco was recognised by the Duchy of Saxony 1489, by France 1512, and by the Holy Roman Empire in 1525. The principality, which is in some respects a French protectorate, only joined the United Nations in 1993.
Prince Rainier, who is 76 years old, served for eighteen months at the end of the Second World War as a colonel in the French Army, under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. He was involved in the Allied invasion of southern France, and later took part in the occupation of Berlin.
Rainier succeeded his grandfather as Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the 9th May 1949, and married the American actress Miss Grace Kelly in 1956. Princess Grace died in 1982.
Rainier's heir is His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco, Marquis de Baux (41). His two daughters, who have at times attracted unwelcome publicity, are Princess Caroline (who recently married Prince Ernst August of Hanover), and Princess Stephanie.
Bhutanese anniversary
The 25th anniversary of the coronation of the King of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was celebrated in June.
His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Druk Gyalpo (King or Maharaja) of Bhutan, who is 43, succeeded his father Jegime Dorji Wangchuck in 1972, and was crowned the 2nd June 1974.
The country was founded in the late ninth century, though the ruling dynasty only became hereditary in 1907, when the offices of deb raja, or lay ruler, and the dhama raja, the clerical ruler, were combined.
The King lives in the Royal Cottage, in the capital of Thimphu. The ancient Tashickhodzang castle is the government seat and official royal residence.
The majority of the population are Mahayana Buddhists of the Druhpa sub-sect of the Kagyua school, a lamaistic form of Buddhism similar to that practised in Tibet before its ruthless repression by the invading atheist Chinese Communists.
Burke's Peerage resurrected
Just a year after the revival of the Almanach de Gotha, guidebook to European royal and princely families, a new edition of the historic Burke's Peerage and Baronetage has been published after an interval of some thirty years.
Burke's Peerage, which gives detailed genealogies of British peers and baronets, as well as of the Royal Family, has been an indispensable tool for genealogists and heralds since 1826.
Although Burke's Peerage Ltd published such works as Burke's Royal Families of the World, Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Landed Gentry, Burke's Irish Family Records, and Burke's Presidential Families of USA, the latest edition of the Peerage and Baronetage was published by a separate company, Morris Genealogical Books. Their world-wide distributors are Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
Apart from the Royal Family, peers associated with New Zealand include the Marquess of Normanby, Earls Jellicoe, Liverpool, Mount Edgcumbe, Onslow, and Ranfurly. Viscounts include Bledisloe, Bolingbroke and St John, Cobham, Galway, and Oxfuird.
Barons associated with New Zealand include Lords Citrine, de Villiers, Freyberg, Islington, Lyveden, Newall, Norrie, Plunket, Rosemead, Rutherford, and Stanmore.
The Earl of Glasgow was created Baron Fairlie for services as Governor of New Zealand at the end of last century, and Lord Walpole is heir to the last Earl of Orford, who died in New Zealand in 1931.
Life peers have included Lords Ballantrae, Cooke of Thorndon, Elworthy, Grey of Naunton, and Porritt. Lord Porritt was Governor-General of New Zealand 1967-72, and Serjeant-Surgeon to The Queen 1946-66. His son, the Hon Sir Jonathon Porritt, Bt, is an adviser on conservation to the Prince of Wales.
Baronets associated with New Zealand include Arthur, Blakiston, Brisco, Burton-Chadwick, Campbell of Auchinbreck, Clifford, Goodenough, Harris, Jephcott, le Fleming, Mappin, Miller, Porritt, Sinclair-Lockhart, Smith, Smith-Dodsworth, Stewart, Stuart-Forbes, and Ward. Sir Basil Arthur, Bt was a Labour Member of Parliament, and Speaker of the House of Representatives 1984-85.
At £295 (US$395) for 3,550 pages in two volumes, Burke's Peerage is not likely to find its way into many private libraries. But editor Charles Mosley must be congratulated for bringing new life to what has been an institution for over one hundred and fifty years.
Royal Yachts
Royal yachts in New Zealand
Royal visitors to New Zealand before the 1950s travelled of necessity by ship. The first royal visitor to this country was Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, younger son of Queen Victoria, when he was serving as commanding officer of HMS Galatea. He was in New Zealand from 11th April to 1st June 1869. He later visited Wellington from 27th August to 3rd September 1870, and returned to New Zealand for a final visit from 8th December 1870 to 16th January 1871.
The next royal visit, and the first by members of the royal family specifically visiting New Zealand for an official tour, and not merely incidental to their naval duties, was not to occur for another thirty years.
From the 11th June to 27th June 1901, George Duke of Cornwall and York, and Mary Duchess of Cornwall and York, later King George V and Queen Mary, visited New Zealand. This was part of an Empire tour, intended in part to pay tribute to the Empire for its patriotic response to the outbreak of the Boer War. It also involved a visit to the new Commonwealth of Australia, to open the first federal Parliament.
The royal couple travelled on the 6,800 tonne Orient Line steamship the Orphir, which had been taken over by the Admiralty, repainted white, and reclassified as a royal yacht for the duration of the voyage. The Victoria and Albert (III), the latest royal yacht, was not yet in commission, and the Victoria and Albert (II) had already been laid up.
From 24th April to 22nd May 1920, Edward Prince of Wales visited New Zealand on the newest, largest battleship HMS Renown. He made four tours on the Renown and her sister ship the Repulse between 1919 and 1925, visiting 45 countries and travelling nearly 150,000 nautical miles. By this time the Victoria and Albert (III) was no longer undertaking overseas voyages, because of its age.
The Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited New Zealand from 22nd February to 22nd March 1927. They also travelled on the battleship HMS Renown. The cruise was made noteworthy by the occurrence of a serious boiler-room fire when crossing the Indian Ocean on the voyage home, and by the fact that, due to bad weather, a tug had to be used by the royal couple to board ship at Bluff.
Henry Duke of Gloucester, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II, visited New Zealand from 15th December 1934 to 29th January 1935, travelling on the Australian cruiser HMAS Australia. He was later to serve as Governor-General of Australia.
From 23rd December 1953 to 30th January 1954 Her Majesty the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh were in New Zealand, travelling on the SS Gothic. This tour was the first by a reigning sovereign to extend across the world, and to include the majority of the major countries of the Empire and Commonwealth. The royal yacht Britannia was not yet completed, although it met the royal couple on their return to Britain.
The heyday of the ocean as a medium of transport was however passing. On all subsequent visits to New Zealand, Her Majesty has travelled by air, and used the royal yacht only as a base of operations, and for transport in New Zealand waters.
These visits included 1963; 1970, for the Captain Cook bi-centenary visit, when a seaman was lost off the escorting frigate while crossing Cook Straight in 60 knot gales and 12m waves; 1974; 1977, as part of the Jubilee Commonwealth tour; 1981; and 1986.
In 1990 and 1995 the royal yacht did not accompany the Queen to New Zealand. Ostensibly, the reason was that the ship was getting too old for such a long deployment, and (in the case of the 1990 visit) that as Her Majesty would be in residence, rather than merely visiting New Zealand, she did not need the yacht as a base of operations.
Political considerations (particularly the attitude of the then New Zealand Government towards the navies of the nuclear powers) may however have played a part in that decision.
With the announcement that Britannia is to be decommissioned at the end of 1997, the largest, and arguably the greatest royal yacht ever will never again visit New Zealand. It is a pity that the opportunity was not taken to invite the Britannia to pay a final visit to New Zealand during her tour of the Far East with the Ocean 97 group deployment.
reprinted from The Raggie, The Newsletter of the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum, September 1997
Blessing of Burntisland found
On 28th January the British Ministry of Defence announced that the wreck of the royal transport the Blessing of Burntisland had been discovered lying in a few metres of silt in the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh, Scotland.
His Majesty King Charles I's baggage barge was lost in 1633 when the King was in Scotland for his coronation. Many valuables from the royal treasury were lost, and the vessel had been the subject of a search led by the American marine archaeologist Barry Clifford.
Appropriately, although he was not to discover the wreck of his ancestors ship, HRH the Duke of York was involved in the search.
HMS Cottesmore, under the command of the Prince, was in the Firth of Forth on 10th February 1994, as part of the search for the Blessing of Burntisland.
As a mine countermeasures vessel, the Cottesmore used its sophisticated sonar to sweep the seabed. This gave valuable experience to the crew, as well as adding to the details included in Admiralty sea charts.
The wreck of the Blessing of Burntisland was eventually discovered by a Royal Navy survey vessel, and will now be examined and assessed for the feasibility of salvage.
Book Reviews
Royal Hopefuls: A New Millennium for Monarchy, by Geoffrey Hindley
Monarchy, Europe's oldest system of government, continues to attract the world's attention. Ex-kings such as Constantine II of Greece, Michael I of Romania, and Simeon of Bulgaria retain their titles and followers still hopeful of their restoration.
They remember that in the mid-1970s Spain restored its king after an interregnum of some forty years and of the 15 members of the European Union seven are monarchies. Of these, the Spanish king saved that country's democracy from a military coup in the 1980s; the Belgian monarchy is a vital factor in the survival of that fractured nation; the Dutch royal house is immensely popular.
Even in Sweden, where the king is merely head of state, HRH Crown Princess Victoria is being groomed in international affairs, sitting alongside the Swedish UN delegation from time to time. In Luxembourg, where the Grand Duke is active in government, his heir is beginning to take over certain duties.
Of course there are problems for the successors. In the autumn of 1998 Emily Bremers broke off her engagement with HRH Crown Prince William of the Netherlands amid rumours that her Catholic religion was a problem in a nation which fought its Protestant War of Independence against Catholic Spain in the 16th century.
History and historical gossip are part of the tradition of monarchy and neither are neglected in Royal Hopefuls. The young Windsors, of course, have their place in the book but the focus, both of narrative and scandal, is on the colourful, sometimes controversial world of Continental monarchy. Geoffrey Hindley's lively new book speculates on the prospects of the institution after the year 2000.
Royal Residences past and present
Sandringham House
HRH The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) acquired the Norfolk estate of Sandringham in 1862 from surplus revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. He demolished the existing eighteenth century house and built a large Jacobean style house, completed 1870. Rebuilt after a serious fire in 1891, Sandringham became the principal private country retreat of the Royal Family after the accession of the new King in 1901.
Some one-quarter of the house was demolished in the early 1970s due to dry rot and the reduced need for accommodation. It still numbers some 274 rooms. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh had proposed in the 1960s to build a new, more manageable house. Designs were actually prepared, but never executed due to economies in the royal budget.
The main house has been open to the public since 1977. The grounds contain the Sandringham Motor Museum (opened 1968), and a Game Museum. Houses on the estate include Park House, used 1955-75 by Viscount Althorpe, father of the late Princess of Wales. In 1983 this was given to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. Appleton House was the home of Princess Maud (1896-1938), and the birthplace of the late King Olav V of Norway.
The Sandringham Estate runs from the marshland on the Wash (where King John lost his Crown Jewels nearly eight hundred years ago), over a strip of greenland, running north and south, up to the chalkland which comprises the central part of East Anglia.
Originally comprising 7,000 acres, the Estate now covers some 20,500 acres, of which 12,000 is let to farming tenants, 3,310 is farmed in hand, and 1,954 is commercial forestry. There are two studs, a fruit farm, and extensive gardens, all under the control of the Land Agent.
Major Sir William Fellowes, KCVO DL, father of Lord Fellowes, GCB GCVO QSO, Private Secretary to Her Majesty 1990-99 and brother-in-law of the late Princess of Wales, was Land Agent 1936-64. The current holder of this office is MJ O'Lone, FRICS, appointed 1998 after having been Surveyor of Windsor Parks and Woods and Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park.
Brantridge Park
Brantridge Park, Balcombe, West Sussex, is one of the lesser royal residences. Standing in Brantridge Forest, it was the seat of the Earl of Athlone, and his wife, HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, last surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was the daughter of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, who died as a result of his haemophilia in 1884.
HRH Princess Alice Countess of Athlone, GBE VA, born 1883, married 1904 in St George's Chapel, Windsor, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander of Teck (later the Earl of Athlone, KG GCB GCMG GCVO DSO PC), son of HSH Francis Duke of Teck, and a brother of Queen Mary.
Princess Alice died 3rd January 1981, and was buried 8th January at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, Windsor.
The Earl of Athlone, though born a scion of the Württemberg royal family, was from a family settled in the United Kingdom. He joined the British army ten years before his marriage to Princess Alice, and later took part in the Matabele War, 1896-97, for which he was mentioned in despatches.
Athlone, made an earl in 1917 when he renounced his German titles, was Governor-General of South Africa 1923-31. He was also Governor-General of Canada 1940-46. He had been nominated for the post in 1914, but did not then proceed due to the outbreak of war.
HSH Princess May of Teck (Lady May Cambridge after 1917), married 1931 Sir Henry Abel-Smith, KCMG KCVO DSO. She died 1994, and was survived by a son and two daughters.
HRH Princess Beatrice, GCVO GBE CI VA, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, lived in Brantridge Park 1919-41. Born 1857, she also was a carrier of haemophilia. She married 1885 at St Mildred's Church, Whippingham, HSH Prince Henry of Battenberg. Princess Beatrice died in 1944 and was buried in St Mildred's Church, Whippingham, Isle of Wight. She was Governor of the Isle of Wight, and lived part of the year in Carisbrooke Castle on the island.
Published by The Monarchist League of New Zealand Inc. Editor: Mr Noel Cox, 123 Stanley Road, Glenfield, Auckland 1310, New Zealand. Tel: +64 9 444-7687; Fax: +64 9 444-7397; E-mail: [email protected]