ROYAL BETROTHAL

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21290, 9 October 1934, Page 16

ROYAL BETROTHAL

♦ PRINCE GEORGE AND PRINCESS MARINA «A COMPLETE SURPRISE" (rilOM OUit OWN COKttESi'OiS'DEKT.) LONDON, September 5. Almost i#2fore the general public had had time to toast the health of Prince George and his fiancee, Princess Marina of Greece, newspaper writers began speculating about the church lor their wedding and deciding upon the house which should be their home! The date suggested was a little more vague, but hopes were expressed that this will be before the silver jubilee celebration of the King and Queen, in May! A dukedom, with its title, is also taken for granted. The first official communique of a very happy betrothal came from Balmoral Castle, dated August 28. It read: "It is with the greatest pleasure that the King and Queen announce the betrothal of their dearly beloved son, the Prince George, to the Princess Marina, daughter of the Prince and Princess Nicolas of Greece, to which union the King has gladly given his consent." Prince Nicolas and Princess Helen of Greece expressed their joy at their daughter's engagement. Prince Nicolas said: "My wife and I are delighted at the news. We are both very much attached to England, and so is Marina, who is delighted at the prospect of going to live there. There is nothing political in the marriage, it is one of affection." Before the marriage can take place the King must give his formal consent by an Order-in-Council under the terms of the Royal Personages Marriage Act. Prince George, as one of the King's sons, receives an annual grant under the Civil List. With the exception of the Prince of Wales, the sons of the King were granted by Act of Parliament in 1910 annuities of £IO.OOO a year each on attaining their majority, to be increased by a further £15,000 each on marriage.

A Holiday Prince George left England on August 15 by air for Jugoslavia, and he began his holiday at Prince Paul's summer residence on Bohinska Lake. The secret of the engagement was kept so closely that even members of the Royal family did not know of it until the Court circular announcement. The Prince of Wales, who is holiday-making at Biarritz, was one of the first to be told. Major Ulick Alexander. Comptroller to Prince George, remarked: "The announcement came as a complete surprise to me." A personal friend said that the Prince gave no indication that he was thinking of becoming engaged before he left England. "He went out just for a holiday to stay with Prince Paul who invited him to have some chamois hunting and shooting." When the engagement was announced, the young people, with Prince Paul and Princess-Olga, were in .Salzburg, where they had gone for a few days to attend the famous grand opera festival.

The Princess and her Family Princess Marina-Marina is tht: Greek form of Mary—is the youngest | of the three lovely daughters of Prince Nicolas of Greece and Princess Helen. She was born in Athens on November 30, 1906, and of her two sisters the eldest is married 1o Prince Paul of Jugoslavia, and the other, Princess Elizabeth, who was born in 1904, is unmarried. Prince Nicolas is the younger brother of the late King Constantino of Greece, and is uncle to former King George of Greece, who lives almost entirely in London. Princess Marina, therefore, is a first cousin of the former King George. Princess Helen was a grand duchess of Russia before her marriage to Prince Nicolas. Prince Nicolas is well known as ti writer and painter. In 1931 he held an exhibition in London which was visited by the King and Queen and Princess Victoria, all of whom made purchases. In 1928 he created something of a literary sensation with the publication of his "Political Memoirs,"' in which he defended King Constantine from charges of pro-Germanism. King George of Greece is a Royal exile. He left Greece in 1932 and was deposed in the following year by his people on the establishment of a Greek Republic. He had resigned for only 15 months. King George's wife. Queen Elizabeth, is the eldest daughter of the late King Ferdinand of Rumania and Queen Marie. King George I. of the Hellenes, a grandfather of Princess Marina, was a brother of Queen Alexandra. Queen Alexandra was a grandmother of Prince George, so there is a distant relationship. Mutual Love of Music The Prince and Princess have many tastes in common. Chief among them is a love of music. Prince George is an accomplished pianist, who plays classical and modern music with equal facility, and the Princess is an amateur musician as well. Frequently when she has been in London Prince George has played to her at St. James's Palace. Princess Marina dances and shoots—two amusements of which Prince George is very fond. She is also an accomplished linguist and speaks English fluently. One who knows the Princess well describes her as "a typical modern girl, very fond of outdoor sport." Most United Family Miss Grace Ellison, a personal friend of the Prince and Princess Nicolas, who happens to be in London, gave some interesting information to the "Daily Mail." She said:— "The Princess is exceptionally beautiful, and has always been a great favourite of Queen Mary. She has a great deal of Queen Alexandra's nature, and is very unostentatious.

■ -=3' She is a keen sportswoman, hunts, and is an excellent markswoman. "The Greek Royal Family, as King Alexander of Jugoslavia told me a year or so ago at Belgrade, is the most united family in the world, and particularly now in its exile and changed fortunes.