Sophia Mountbatten , Obit: The Telegraph: " H R H Princess George of Hanover (Filed: 30/11/2001) PRINCESS GEORGE OF HANOVER, the former Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, who has died aged 87, was the last surviving sister of the Duke of Edinburgh. Princess George of Hanover's life was one of stark contrasts, all of which she took in her stride. There were times when she lived in the heart of royal courts, others when she lived quietly and informally, without much money. A young widow in Germany in the Second World War, she was a stalwart mother to five small children and took care of their four cousins under bleak circumstances. Though little known to the British public, she was close to the British Royal Family, stayed each year at Windsor and Buckingham Palace, and for Prince Philip, she was the last tangible link with his childhood. Princess Sophie of Greece was born on June 26 1914, the youngest of the four daughters of Prince Andrew of Greece and his wife Princess Alice of Battenberg. When she was born at the family home on Corfu, the beautiful villa Mon Repos, her 13-year-old uncle, Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Lord Mountbatten) wrote to his mother: "Please congratulate Alice for me, but it was silly not to have a boy for once in a way." Sophie was named after her aunt, Queen Sophie of Greece, and nicknamed "Tiny" on account of being the baby of the family. That she grew up tall made the nickname the more enjoyable. Her life was turbulent from the start. Her earliest childhood memory was of hiding with her mother in the cellar in the Royal Palace at Athens, while the French bombed the city in December 1916. She accompanied her family into exile in Switzerland in 1917 and returned to Greece with them in 1920. Her father was almost shot in Athens as a political scapegoat in 1922, following the failure of the Asia Minor Campaign in 1921, and the family was rescued in a warship made available by the British government. Princess Sophie's family fell into two groups, the elder two girls, Margarita and Theodora, and the younger two, Cecile and herself. Then there was the long-awaited boy, Prince Philip, born in 1921. Sophie spent most of the next eight years living with her parents and siblings in a small house at St Cloud, made available to them by her aunt, Princess George of Greece (the well-known French author and psychoanalyst, Marie Bonaparte). In 1930 her mother suffered a religious crisis and left the family home for treatment in Switzerland. Though only 15, Sophie became engaged to a distant cousin, Prince Christoph ("Chri") of Hesse, son of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and a grandson of Empress Frederick. The wedding was celebrated in Germany on December 15 1930, by which time she was just 16. The bride's train was carried with dignity by her brother, Philip, then aged nine. The young couple began married life in Berlin, where Prince Christoph was employed in an insurance company. They lived a house at Berlin /Dahlem. Like others in his family, Prince Christoph got involved with National Socialism from the outset, but by 1942, he had become completely disillusioned. At the beginning of the war, Christoph, a reserve officer in the Luftwaffe, joined his bomb squadron as a navigator. He undertook missions in the Netherlands and France, and the eastern front of the USSR, but never over the English Channel, a persistent but incorrect assertion which is refuted by the evidence. In 1942, without explanation, he was suddenly transferred from flying missions to the staff of a fighter squadron, in which he served in Tunisia and Sicily, his squadron taking part in actions against Malta. In October 1943, at the time when Hitler removed all the German princes from active service, he was recalled home. On October 7, flying in thick fog, his aeroplane crashed in the Apennine hills near Forli and two days later his body and that of his co-pilot were found. In the 13 years of their marriage, Sophie had given birth to two sons and two daughters, a third daughter being born shortly after Prince Christoph's death. Since leaving Berlin at the outbreak of the war, Sophie had been living with her mother-in-law at Schloss Friedrichshof, near Frankfurt, not only looking after her children but also their cousins, the four children of Prince Philip of Hesse (who had been interned at Flossenburg, Bavaria in 1943), and his wife, Princess Mafalda (who had been kidnapped by the Gestapo and interned at Buchenwald). The death of Princess Mafalda was only confirmed after the Allies liberated Germany in 1945. This was no easy time. When the Americans came in 1945, Princess Sophie and the children had to leave Friedrichshof within hours. They took refuge at Schloss Wolfsgarten, the Hesse-Darmstadt family home near Darmstadt, where they lived on what rations they could obtain, and were ably helped by the British-born Princess Margaret of Hesse (who fed and clothed numerous youngsters and other refugees during those years). In April 1946, Sophie married her second husband, Prince George William of Hanover, the second son of the Duke of Brunswick, and a grandson of the Kaiser. He was a brother of Queen Frederika of Greece. In her second marriage, Princess Sophie found herself the wife of the headmaster of Salem, the school founded by Kurt Hahn, of which Gordonstoun is a satellite. By him she had a further two sons and a daughter. (In 1981, she lost her son, Prince Welf of Hanover, who died of a brain aneurysm in India). None of Prince Philip's sisters was invited to his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in 1947, because they were married to Germans. But soon afterwards, Prince and Princess George paid a private visit to Scotland, and were invited to stay at Birkhall, then the holiday home of Princess Elizabeth, far from the gaze of the press. The sisters and their families were all present at the Coronation in 1953. This was achieved with no adverse publicity, and thereafter they were all regular visitors to Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the other royal homes. In 1967 it fell to Princess Sophie to warn her mother, Princess Alice, then living as a nun in Athens, that the political situation in Greece was worsening, and she passed on an invitation from the Queen that Princess Alice should come to live at Buckingham Palace. The invitation was accepted and the Princess lived there until her death in 1969. Princess Sophie was a keen visitor to the Royal Windsor Horse Show and sometimes accompanied Prince Philip in his carriage when he drove four-in-hand. She became godmother to Prince Edward in 1964. In 1997 she and her husband were prominent guests at the Golden Wedding celebrations in Westminster Abbey. More informally, when she discovered she had a young fan in a Piccadilly bookshop, she never failed to call in to see him on her visits to London. The Royal Family found her enjoyably forthright and very funny. She knew she could rely on her brother, Prince Philip, and was grateful to him for quietly sending some of her children and grandchildren to boarding school. She likewise relied on his stalwart treasurer, Sir Brian McGrath, who never failed to help her in matters large and small. And she was fond of Prince Charles, with whom she sometimes stayed at Highgrove. In 1994 Princess George accompanied Prince Philip to Jerusalem to witness the honouring of their mother with the Yad Vashem Award of the Righteous, for having secretly hidden a Jewish family in her flat in Athens during the Second World War. Following this, she considered it was time that her mother's life should be written, the result being published in November 2000. In her last years Princess George lived quietly at Schliersee, not far from Munich, often remaining there alone, since her husband continued to travel well into old age. For many years she stayed regularly with Princess Margaret of Hesse, whom she described as the "most true and steadfast of friends". This summer Princess George moved to a small nursing home in Germany, where she died peacefully on Saturday. She is survived by Prince George, as well as seven children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ã Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
|