February 1, 1912
King George V has ordered five weeks of court mourning for his brother-in-law, the Duke of Fife. This has "caused surprise" as it is longer than the "period commanded for the Duke of Teck, Queen Mary's father," reports the New York Times.
The period of mourning will end on March 6 and will affect only two "great official functions," the service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's and the opening of Parliament. It will, however, require the postponement of events at Court including levees.
The Duke of Fife died on January 29 at Aswan, Egypt. He was 62. In December, the Duke and his wife and two daughters were on board the SS Delphi, which was shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. The passengers spent several hours in the water before they were rescued. But once on land, they had to walk for four miles before finding a place to stay. The Duke soon became ill with pleurisy, most likely due to the shipwreck.
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife was born in Edinburgh on November 10, 1849, the son of James Duff, 5th Earl of Fife, and Lady Agnes Hay, the third child of William Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll, and Elizabeth Fitzclarence, one of William IV's illegitimate children.
He succeeded his father as the 6th Earl of Fife on August 7, 1879.
On July 27, 1889, Lord Fife married his third cousin, Princess Louise of Wales, the third child and eldest daughter, of the then Prince and Princess of Wales.
On the morning of the wedding, Queen Victoria elevated Lord Fife to a Dukedom: Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff.
Princess Louise gave birth to three children: a stillborn son, Alastair (1890), and two daughters, Alexandra (1891) and Maud (1893). In April 1900, Queen Victoria recreated the Fife dukedom with the earldom of Macduff, with a special remainder to his two daughters and their male heirs
On November 9, 1905, King Edward VII created Louise as Princess Royal and decreed that her daughters were now Princesses with the style of Highness.
HH Princess Alexandra succeeded her father as the 2nd Duchess of Fife. She will celebrate her 21st birthday on May 17.
Now that’s interesting. Can’t think of a subsequent occasion when daughters of a daughter of a monarch have been princesses?
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