Buckingham Palace is an exquisite building, and royal fans would happily fight one another for the chance to stay there for even one night. However, not every Royal Family resident who has had the pleasure of residing in the palace has taken the best care of it. In fact, one unexpected royal allegedly set fire to their room inside Buckingham Palace on more than one occasion.
In his book Yes, Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, author Tom Quinn interviewed Agnes Cooke, a former palace kitchen worker who recalled the "fiery habit" Prince Philip's mom was known for. Cooke explained (via the Daily Mail), "Well, there was a lady-in-waiting who was very friendly with Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, when Alice was living at Buckingham Palace, and they used to smoke cigarettes together in Alice's apartment—so much so that they regularly set fire to it."
Further elaborating on the strange occurrence, Cooke told Quinn, "And despite being very grand indeed—a member of one of Britain's oldest and most aristocratic families—this particular lady-in-waiting used to wander about with a cigarette stuck behind her ear, like a coal miner or a carpenter."
Prince Philip with his mother, Princess Alice.
Having been born at Windsor Castle in 1885, Princess Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903. According to The New York Times, the royal wedding took place "at the Old Palace" in Darmstadt, Germany, "in the presence of a glittering assembly of 200 sovereigns, princes, diplomats, and cabinet ministers." After the wedding, Alice and Andrew moved to Greece and welcomed five children together—including Prince Philip.
Princess Alice of Battenberg.
Unfortunately, Princess Alice lived an extremely difficult life. The family was exiled from Greece in 1922, and Alice was "sent to the Tegel Clinic in Berlin" without her consent due to alleged mental health issues, per The British Psychological Society. After eventually leaving Berlin, following some intrusive treatment protocols, Alice spent time in Europe before returning to Athens, where she founded the Christian Brotherhood of Martha and Mary, via Greek Reporter.
It was in the final two years of Alice's life that she moved into Buckingham Palace, where she was allegedly responsible for starting several fires.
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