Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, VA, CI, RRC, 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

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 St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.^[3] After their wedding, Leopold and Helen resided at Claremont House. The couple had a brief, but happy marriage, ending in the 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:

• Princess Alice of Albany (1883–1981), later Countess of Athlone
• Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (1884–1954), later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Personality and social work

According to the memoirs of Helen's daughter, Princess Alice, Helen was very intelligent, had a strong sense of duty, and a genuine love of welfare work. Queen Victoria, initially worried that Helen might turn out to be a stereotypically remote German princess, remarked in a letter to her eldest daughter, German Crown Princess Victoria, that she was pleased Helen liked "to go among the people". The Queen soon came to regard her young daughter-in-law with great respect and affection, notwithstanding her initial concerns upon hearing from the match-making Vicky that Helen was an 'intellectual', being unusually well-educated for a princess. Before her marriage, Helen's father had made her superintendent of the infant schools in his principality, and in this position the Princess had devised the pupils' educational curriculum. Helen particularly enjoyed solving mathematical problems and reading philosophy: during their tragically brief marriage, Prince Leopold proudly introduced his wife to the circle of academics he had befriended at 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 Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899, Helen's sixteen-year-old son was selected as the new heir to the German duchy, and was parted from his mother and sister in order to take up residence there. When the First World War broke out 14 years later, Charles Edward found himself fighting in the German Army. As a result, he was stripped of his British titles by an act of Parliament in 1917. By contrast, Helen's daughter Alice remained in England and by marriage to 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 Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; had issue (including Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, mother of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden).

Ancestry

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany.

External links

• Portraits of Princess Helen, Duchess of Albany at the National Portrait Gallery, London