Queen Alexandra and London Hospital

There are not many members of the royal family associated with the east end of London. The exception however was Princess Alexandra of Denmark who

was to become to consort of King Edward Vll. Alexandra was the Princess Diana of her day for their lives seems to follow the same path in many ways.

Born in Copenhagen on the first of December 1844 to Prince Christian and Princess Louise it was only natural that her future husband would also be of royal blood. Her sister married Tsar Alexander lll of Russia and was to become the mother of the ill fated Tsar Nicholas ll. 

However it was towards England that her parents looked to for a suitable match for her youngest daughter, and it came in the form of Prince Albert Edward, later to become King Edward Vll.

Alexandra wouldn’t have been Victoria’s first choice, for Alexandra being a Dane her dislike of the Germans was well known, and as most of Victoria’s relatives including her beloved late husband Albert were from that country she was a little dubious at having Alexandra for a daughter-in-law. However when the two women met all Victoria’s fears vanished, and as well as meeting with the approval of both the Queen and Prince Edward the British public also took the Danish Princess to their hearts.

The marriage took place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor on the tenth of March

1863, they were seen off on honeymoon by Randolph Churchill and his wife Jenny Jerome who was to become the mother of Winston Churchill and the lover of Prince Edward, it was while still on honeymoon that Edward described the event of meeting Jenny when he wrote home, similar to the phone call to Camilla while Charles was on his honeymoon with Diana.

The royal couple went on to have six children, their youngest Prince Alexander Edward died at one day old, and their eldest Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence, people will recall is always named in the list of Jack the Ripper suspects, died in 1892 at the age of twenty eight, Alexandra was understandably grief stricken at this loss and kept his rooms exactly has he had left them for the rest of her life.

Unlike other British royals to Alexandra her children were the most important thing in her life, she also treated her servants far better than was the norm for the time, she loved dancing and ice-skating but also even without trying she became a trend setter in fashion, her style was avidly copied by women all over the country, even the when complications with the birth of her third child left her with a limp this too was seen as a fashionable thing to acquire and was also copied.

Another thing that became the fashion of the day was the high pearl chocker and high collars that Alexandra always wore to hide a scar on her neck, it was said she received the scar accidentally but others claimed it was a failed suicide attempt, perhaps she wasn’t as immune to her husbands philandering ways as has been suggested.

Like the present Prince Charles, Edward was heir to a long lived monarch, so he filled his time with all the common pursuits of an Edwardian gentleman, as well as hunting and shooting he indulged in gambling, horseracing and of course then there were his mistresses. A common thing among royals and the aristocracy of his time, wives were expected to turn a blind eye to their husbands wandering eye. Edward had a string of mistresses the main ones being Lillie Langtry; Daisy Greville, the Countess of Warwick; the beautiful but married Jennie Jerome, humanitarian Agnes Keyser, and the Great Grandmother of Camila Parker-Bowles Alice Keppel. 

In 1870 he was accused in divorce court of having an affair with Lady Mordaunt. Queen Victoria was horrified by her son's behaviour and warned that evidence of a pleasure-loving and immoral aristocracy might provoke the working class into adopting radical political ideas.

It was expected of Alexandra to tolerate these women and was even said to enjoy the company of Jenny Jerome who she found amusing, but it was Agnes Keyser that was most accepted by both Alexandra and so welcomed in royal circles, for Agnes was unmarried and conducted her relationship with the prince in private so as not to embarrass his wife, unlike Alice Kepple of whom Alexandra once complained ‘wherever we go she is always there’, it could also be that Agnes and Alexandra had other things in common for during the Boer War Alexandra set up Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps, and Agnes and her sister Fanny Keyser were to establish the King Edward Vll hospital.

Alexandra was a supporter of many charities and had a natural affinity with the sick and poor, but perhaps her special love was the Royal London Hospital in

Whitechapel where her statue stands, and where she would spend hours visiting the wards, it was here too she persuaded the hospital to send a representative to her home city of Copenhagen to study the results of the Finsen ultra-violet light cure for lupus (tuberculosis of the skin) It proved remarkably successful; they treated 100 patients a day for 25 years and the incidence of the disease was reduced for the first time'. On the first lamp is the engraving "Nothing but Perseverance" in recognition of Alexandra’s gentle bullying to have the treatment introduced into Britain.

In 1904 Alexandra was made president of the hospital. 1908 saw a bronze statue of Alexandra in her full coronation robes erected in the hospital grounds. 

The statue was created by George Edward Wade, the base contains plaques showing the lupus treatment that Alexandra introduced to the hospital.

On the day of the unveiling the statue in he weather was unfavourable but the hospital authorities had arranged for the ceremony to take place in a huge marquee, the sides of which were sufficiently drawn back to enable those patients well enough to view some of the proceedings from their ward balconies. 

The statue was moved in spring 1959 to allow a new ward block to be built. It was returned after it had been cleaned and restored to its original condition. It was placed in the same courtyard facing north on a lower plinth to enable the very fine detail of the sculpture. Over the following years the hospital has been rebuilt in parts, and the statue was once again moved. Today it stands on Stepney Way, just over a hundred yards where it first stood and overlooks the main entrance. 

In 1910, Edward VII was terminally ill and as he lay on his death bed he asked for Alice Kepple. Queen Alexandra reluctantly allowed her to be present whilst he was still conscious. However, when the king lost consciousness, she hissed to the doctor, "Get that woman away." After his death the Kepple’s left Britain and went traveling for two years.

As a mark of the affection in which Alexandra was held two years later it was suggested that there should be a nationwide celebration to mark the 50th

anniversary of her first arrival in Britain, but is equally a measure of the woman that she would have none of this instead suggesting that artificial roses should be sold for charity, so it was that ‘Alexandra Rose Day’ was born, The first event raised £32,000 (the equivalent of well over £2 million in todays money). The funds raised were a great benefit to hospitals, 

By 1920, £775,000 for London hospitals had been raised. Queen Alexandra’s last special Rose Day was 1923, the 60th anniversary of her arrival in England. She died two years later, in 1925. The charity still exists today continuing to do good work.Today the event raises money for charities that do not normally get national attention for fundraising. The Prime Minister traditionally launches the day by being the first to buy a rose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQLJgiIBGQ

On November 26th her coffin was removed from Sandringham where she died to Wolferton station; from there to King’s Cross station and then to St. James’s Palace, and finally to the Chapel Royal where it was guarded throughout

the night. On the following day, with all the honour of military pageantry, the coffin was borne to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service and public lying-in-state. On November 28th there was a Memorial Service in St. Paul’s, after which the coffin was taken to Windsor for the final burial.

There is a memorial statue which was unveiled seven years after her death. It is built into the wall Marlborough House and is opposite St James Palace.