HRH THE PRINCESS FREDERICA OF HANOVER
Hampton Court Palace in the 19th Century
An exerpt from "Grace & Favour - A handbook of who lived where in Hampton Court Palace 1750 to 1950" :
Princess Frederica Sophia Maria Henrietta Amelia Theresa of Hanover (1848–1926) was born in France, the eldest daughter of the blind King George V of Hanover, and Princess Mary Alexandrina. In 1880 she married Luitbert Alexander George Lionel Alphonse, Freiherr von Pawel Rammingen (1843–1932). On that occasion, the poet Alfred Tennyson, wrote the following :
To Princess Frederica on Her Marriage
O YOU that were eyes and light to the King till he past away
From the darkness of life—
He saw not his daughter—he blest her: the blind King sees you to-day,
He blesses the wife.
Their daughter, Victoria Georgina Beatrice Maude Anne, was born in their apartment in Hampton Court Palace on 7 March 1881, but died three weeks later.
In 1881 they had 12 domestic staff, including a lady’s maid, domestic nurse, butler and footman, and soon requested extra rooms to accommodate their considerable household. By the 1891 census, only one servant was listed: Maria Godfrey, housemaid. The couple were constantly battling for larger quarters and even applied for the inclusion of the Gardener’s Cottage, next to the Vine House, as part of their apartment. Eventually, Princess Frederica agreed to relinquish her stables to the rear of her apartment and Queen Victoria approved a plan to convert them to private lodgings and to erect a storey of rooms on top. In September 1882 the project was completed; it was the last significant
addition to Hampton Court.
A royal presence caused some readjustments in the palace and Princess Frederica was duly offered the use of the Royal Pew in the Chapel Royal but declined it in preference for a pew half-way along the north side. The Princess and the Baron, however, would mostly walk to St Mary’s Church in Hampton, where they occupied a pew in the gallery.
After the death of their daughter, the Princess devoted herself to charitable activities. She set about founding a home for poor and delicate married women recovering from childbirth. To launch the campaign she organised an event in the Great Hall in August 1881 and with the proceeds from this and other events she was able to open a home in East Molesey for six married women and their babies.
The Baron, however, was not so at ease with his social inferiors. In September 1890 he was given permission to go shooting in Bushy Park but was strongly criticised in a report in the Kingston Express of 27 September. Four weeks later a satirical rhyming poem was published which opened:
I am der Baron Pawel (von Rammingen in all)
Who vendt to hundt in Pushey Bark der rabbits nice and schmall.
I took mein leedle schot-gun to pop avay so fine
Und some frendts dey come along mit me for to cut a schine.
The paper later published the number of rabbits that the Baron handed over to the poor of Hampton after each of his shooting parties.
Apart from her charity work, and, obviously, opening schools, Frederica also had a ship named after her - the London & South Western Railway passenger ship, built in 1890 for the Southampton-Channel Islands / Le Havre route, where it operated until 1911. There is a picture of the ship below, leaving St. Peter Port in Guernsey.