Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester 00091 Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, GCB, CI, GCVO, GBE, GCStJ (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 - 29 October 2004) was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the mother of Prince William of Gloucester and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
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Her use of the title "Princess" after the death of her husband, while approved by the late Queen, was not without controversy at the time, because she derived that technical title and status from her husband and was not a princess in her own right. It is possible that she felt this followed the pattern of her late sister-in-law, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, after the marriage of her son to Katherine, the new Duchess of Kent; and in any case she wished to avoid confusion with her daughter-in-law Birgitte, who was the new Duchess of Gloucester - having also been known as Princess Richard of Gloucester for barely six weeks between their marriage and the accidental death of Prince William, who would otherwise be the new Duke of Gloucester. Indeed it was another Princess Alice - the Countess of Athlone, who was most vocal about this anomaly, pointing out to whomever would listen that no precedent had been set by Princess Marina as she was already a princess in her own right in the Greek Royal House when she married Prince George, the late Duke of Kent; and that while The Queen could have deprived her of the style because she wasn't a British princess, it had been more appropriate than it was for Alice, who had never been a princess! The Countess of Athlone also laboured the point by clarifying the validity of her own use of princess - as she was the daughter of Prince Leopold and therefore a grandchild in the male line of Queen Victoria and automatically a Princess of the United Kingdom, with the titular dignity of 'Her Royal Highness'! I think she possibly went on to explain why her title was valid and the Princely title that her husband had been born with was not and therefore, she always had a higher title than the one she derived from him! However, Her Majesty had made her decision to allow it for Alice too, so who cared what an old lady like her had to say... Interestingly, she made no reference to her cousin, Lady Patricia Ramsay, who was also a granddaughter in the male-line of Queen Victoria but who, since her marriage to a commoner, had opted not to use her princess title!! One has to question whether the two Alices ever got on, after such a rank-pulling outburst!!