Biography of Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover 1833-1897

On 1st June 1818 [her father] Adolphus Hanover 1st Duke Cambridge (age 44) and [her mother] Princess Augusta Hesse-Kassel Duchess Cambridge (age 20) were married. She by marriage Duchess Cambridge. The difference in their ages was 23 years. He the son of [her grandfather] King George III of Great Britain and Ireland (age 79) and [her grandmother] Charlotte Mecklenburg Strelitz Queen Consort England (age 74). They were second cousins. She a great granddaughter of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland.

On 27th November 1833 Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover was born to Adolphus Hanover 1st Duke Cambridge (age 59) and Princess Augusta Hesse-Kassel Duchess Cambridge (age 36) at Hanover Lower Saxony. She a granddaughter of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland. Coefficient of inbreeding 1.64%.

On 8th July 1850 [her father] Adolphus Hanover 1st Duke Cambridge (age 76) died. His son [her brother] Prince (age 31) succeeded 2nd Duke Cambridge.

1853. Henry Tanworth Wells (age 24). Miniature portrait of Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 19).

Queen Victoria commissioned this miniature of her cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, in 1853. Her payment to the artist, Henry Tanworth Wells, is recorded in her private accounts in 1854: 'Mr Wells, miniature, Princess Mary £28.7.0.' (27 guineas). Princess Mary recorded the first sitting in her Journal on 7 December 1853: 'Breakfasted in my own room, and at eleven o'clock was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the painter, Mr. Wells, who came to take a rough sketch of me; this lasted for over an hour'. She clearly found the experience of sitting tiresome, writing to the Honourable Mrs Dalrymple on 11 December: 'I am sitting for my picture for the collection of Miniatures at Windsor; and as this is no very pleasing task I thought you might perhaps kindly take pity on me and 'run away' to Kew some morning …' . Further sittings took place on 17 December 1853 and 4 January 1854, and the picture was pronounced finished on 13 January. The result is a miniature of which one critic commented: 'It is impossible to speak too highly' (Art Journal, 1854, new ser., V, p. 171).

The Diary of George Price Boyce 1854. 28th January 1854. To Wells (age 25); he had had an audience of the Queen, who was gracious and complimentary, liking his miniature of the Princess much. The latter [Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 20)], Wells says, is a gleeful damsel, and retails to him with spirit and cleverness whole scenes from Box and Cox and other farces.

Adeline Horsey Recollections. In January 1859, I went to the House of Lords to hear the debate from the Peeresses Gallery. I was sitting near the [her mother] Duchess of Cambridge (age 61) and Princess Mary (age 25), when Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury (age 46), made her appearance. I had not met her since my marriage, but I could see by her look that for some reasons of her own she meant to cut me, so I thought I would carry the war into the enemy's camp, and just as she was about to pass me, I said, "Oh, Lady Ailesbury, you may like to know that before Lady Cardigan died she told my Lord (age 61) all about you and your illegitimate children!".

Lady A. looked nervously round and said in an agitated whisper, "Hush, hush, my dear, I'm coming to lunch with you to-morrow". She never asked me what Lady Cardigan had particularly said, but from that day we were outwardly the best of friends.

On my return to England as Countess of Cardigan, I need hardly say that every one was very anxious to be on good terms with me, and my own family were the first to make peaceful overtures. I had no wish to keep up the quarrel. As my marriage plainly showed how right I was in trusting Cardigan, and the motives of our much-discussed friendship were now openly vindicated, I let bygones be by-gones, and we were all good friends again.

On 12th June 1866 Francis Teck (age 28) and Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 32) were married at St Anne's Church Kew, Surrey. She the daughter of Adolphus Hanover 1st Duke Cambridge and Princess Augusta Hesse-Kassel Duchess Cambridge (age 68). They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 3 grandson of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland. She a granddaughter of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

On 26th May 1867 [her daughter] Victoria Mary Teck Queen Consort England was born to [her husband] Francis Teck (age 29) and Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 33). She a great granddaughter of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

On 13th August 1868 [her son] Adolphus Cambridge Duke Teck was born to [her husband] Francis Teck (age 30) and Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 34) at Kensington Palace. He a great grandson of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

On 9th January 1870 [her son] Prince Francis of Teck was born to [her husband] Francis Teck (age 32) and Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 36). He a great grandson of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

In 1874 [her son] Alexander Teck 1st Earl Athlone was born to [her husband] Francis Teck (age 36) and Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 40) at Kensington Palace. He a great grandson of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

Life's Ebb And Flow Chapter IV. [30th April 1881]. And so the tale unfolds. Our [Francis Greville 5th Earl Warwick 5th Earl Brooke (age 28) and Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Maynard Countess Warwick (age 19)] marriage took place in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and the newspapers of the day made much of the "most brilliant wedding of a dozen seasons." I remember my surprise as I drove from our house in Carlton Gardens to the Abbey to find the way lined with interested crowds.

Among the guests were the Prince (age 39) and Princess of Wales (age 36), Prince and Princess Christian, the Duke (age 30) and Duchess of Connaught (age 20), Princess Louise (age 33) (Marchioness of Lorne), Princess Mary Adelaide (age 47) (Duchess of Teck) and the Duke of Teck (parents of Queen Mary), with Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (age 28), as my husband's best man. The crush filled the Abbey from the choir to the door.

My twelve bridesmaids were all girl friends and relatives. They were: Blanche Maynard (age 17), my sister (now Lady Algernon Gordon-Lennox (age 33)), Lady Eva Greville (age 21), my husband's only sister, my stepsisters, Millicent (age 13), Sybil (age 9), and Angela St. Clair Erskine (age 4) (later Duchess of Sutherland, Countess of Westmorland, and Lady A. Forbes), Countess Feodore Gleichen (age 19) (later a renowned sculptor), Lady Florence Bridgman (age 22) (the present Countess of Harewood and mother of Viscount Lascelles (age 34)), Miss Wombwell (age 19) (Countess of Dartrey), Miss Mills, the first Lord Hillingdon's daughter, Miss Violet Lindsay (age 25) (now Violet, Duchess of Rutland), and Miss Ethel Milner (age 30) (later Countess of Durham).

On 6th April 1889 [her mother] Princess Augusta Hesse-Kassel Duchess Cambridge (age 91) died.

On 6th July 1893 [her son-in-law] King George V of the United Kingdom (age 28) and [her daughter] Victoria Mary Teck Queen Consort England (age 26) were married at Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. She by marriage Duchess York. He the son of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (age 51) and Alexandra Glücksburg Queen Consort England (age 48). They were second cousin once removed. She a great granddaughter of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.

The photograph by from left to right:

Alexandra Windsor Princess (age 14)

Princess Alice of Battenburg (age 8)

Victoria Eugénie Mountbatten Queen Consort Spain (age 5)

Beatrice Windsor Duchess Galliera (age 9)

King George V of the United Kingdom

Margaret "Daisy" Windsor (age 11)

Victoria Mary Teck Queen Consort England

Maud Windsor Queen Consort Norway (age 23)

Victoria Patricia "Patsy" Windsor (age 7)

Princess Victoria Windsor (age 25)

Helena Victoria Oldenburg (age 23)

Victoria Melita Windsor (age 16)

In 1894 [her son] Adolphus Cambridge Duke Teck (age 25) and [her daughter-in-law] Margaret Evelyn Grosvenor Duchess Teck (age 20) were married at Eaton Hall, Cheshire [Map]. She the daughter of Hugh Lupus Grosvenor 1st Duke Westminster (age 68) and Constance Leveson-Gower Duchess Westminster.

On 27th October 1897 Princess Mary Adelaide Hanover (age 63) died at White Lodge Richmond Park, Surrey. She was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle [Map].

On 21st January 1900 [her former husband] Francis Teck (age 62) died. His son [her son] Adolphus (age 31) succeeded Duke Teck. [her daughter-in-law] Margaret Evelyn Grosvenor Duchess Teck (age 26) by marriage Duchess Teck.