Alexandra falls off horse

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January 9, 1955

Princess Alexandra of Kent is "tall and dusty eyed," and according to the Associated Press, she is "rapidly becoming a rival to pretty Princess Margaret as a royal glamour girl."

The princess, who is 18, is the only daughter of the Duchess of Kent.  She is becoming a "front-page fixture" as she grows out of the "awkward age to graceful womanhood."

A fall from a "borrowed horse named Smokey" put the princess on the front pages of Britain's newspapers.  Seven London papers "prominently chronicled her comment after her fall: 'I'm not hurt and I want to carry on."

She certainly did. She got back on her horse, and rode right through "the muddy pastures and soggy woods" to catch up with the hunt.

She dismissed suggestions that she was injured. 

"I just got a little bit wet," she said.

Princess Alexandra is a guest at Cottesbrooke Hall, the Northamptonshire home of Maj. R.N. MacDonald-Buchanan. Tonight she slipped into one of her "elegant evening dresses," where she hoped to dance until 3 a.m.

She is not catching the public's eye because of her riding skills, but as a "tall, shapely young woman who is beginning to spell regal glamour."