Before Diana, Princess Mary the first People's Princess
Filey Literature Festival's Right Royal Event
The Queen of Hearts, Princess Diana, is often perceived to be the Princess who redefined the role for the modern age. The current Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, is continuing to modernise the Royal family, with her recent cancer diagnosis video being a seminal moment in the process.
But, before them was another Princess, who paved the way, Princess Mary. The only daughter of King George V, Princess Mary tore up the rule book and redefined the role for the modern age. During the Great War, she headed an appeal to provide a Christmas gift to everyman serving on Christmas Day 1914. Originally, she planned to pay for the gifts from her own personal allowance, but that proved to be impracticable once the size of the task was understood.
Over 2.6 million little brass boxes, containing various gifts, including cigarettes, chocolates and a photograph of Princess Mary herself, were distributed. They became treasured keepsakes for the troops, with men keeping the brass boxes long after the last cigarette had been smoked. The young Princess served as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital throughout the conflict.
In 1922 Princess Mary married Henry Lascelles, (later 6th Earl of Harewood) and in time became the Countess of Harewood. Her long association with Filey started when she began holidaying on The Crescent throughout the 1920s and ‘30s. Her two sons, George and Gerald, became familiar figures during their lengthy holidays in Filey. Indeed, when the White Lodge came up for sale in the late 1930s, Lord Harewood was dispatched by his wife to view the property as a potential summer residence. However, it was rumoured that the imminent development of the Butlin’s site was off putting to the Earl and thus the White Lodge was sold to become the hotel we know today.
The fabulous life of Princess Mary will be told at Filey Literature Festival by author Elisabeth Basford, at 1.30pm on Sunday 12 May. Tickets are priced at just £5 and can be purchased via this link. There will also be pay on the door available.
Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood and ‘Yorkshire’s Princess’