Little countess appears in Gotha for the first time

January 10, 1911

Five-year-old Countess Nemerow appears for the first time in the 1911 edition of the Almanach de Gotha.  She received the title last year from her grandfather, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  This title will avoid the "necessity of her ever being compelled to use the plebeian name of her French father," the Marquise de Fontenoy writes in her latest column.

Little Marie Auguste's mother, Marie, is the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich V of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Elisabeth of Anhalt.     In 1898, Duchess Marie, on a trip to France, met Georges Jametel, the son of an apothecary in Fontainebleau.   The very vulnerable Marie, still recovering from the birth of an illegitimate daughter, allowed herself to "induced to good looking Georges Jametel."

The couple was married on June 22, 1899, in Roman Catholic and Anglican ceremonies, the former taking place at the Catholic Chapel of St. Elizabeth in Richmond Park, and the latter at the Parish Church at Kew.

Marie's paternal grandmother, Augusta, the Dowager Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was born Princess Augusta of Cambridge, granddaughter of George III, and a first cousin to Queen Victoria.  Marie's great aunt, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, lived at White Lodge, near Richmond Park.  The marriage was morganatic but did have the support of Marie's family.  Her grandparents, parents and her siblings attended the wedding.  Marie's great-uncle, the Duke of Cambridge, hosted the wedding breakfast at his home, Cambridge Cottage, in Kew.

The marriage was not a happy one.  Georges had several affairs, including one with Infanta Eulalia of Spain.  It soon emerged that Georges had married Duchess Marie for her money. Her brother, Duke Karl Borwin, incensed by his brother-in-law's behavior, challenged Jametel to a duel.  Jametel shot and killed Karl Borwin.  

Marie and Georges were divorced on December 31, 1908.  Two years later,  Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich bestowed the title Countess Nemerow on little Marie Auguste, who was born September 11, 1905.  Marie, who resumed her title following the divorce, and Georges are also the parents of a son, Georges, who was born on February 3, 1904.

Jametel, whose father received a papal title of count, "managed to give offense even at the wedding ceremony at Kew to Queen Alexandra, and to Queen Mary," both of whom were present.  He was "so disagreeable, and Marie's family "anxious to please and help her, they were compelled to hold aloof."

The couple settled in Paris with an allowance provided by Marie's family, but Count Jametel, "finding that he had failed to obtain any social advantage by the union, " commenced to neglect his wife.  Marie's father declined to "bestow any princely title upon him, or to receive him at their court."   The doors of the "leading Paris clubs and salons" were also closed to him.

After the divorce, Marie returned to Germany with her daughter, and with the consent of her father, resumed the "title and dignity of a royal duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  She now lives with her daughter, the Countess of Nemerow in her own right, with the "venerable dowager of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, at Dresden."

[The article noted that Marie received custody of the couple's only child, which appears to be incorrect, as Marie and Georges' first child was a son.]