PRINCESS ROYAL ILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20375, 2 October 1929, Page 11

PRINCESS ROYAL ILL.

KINO'S ELDEST SISTER. HEART CAUSING ANXIETY. SLIGHT GASTRIC HEMORRHAGE. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. British Wireless. LONDON, Sept. 30. The Princess Royal, Dowager Duchess of Fife, eldest sister of King George, is ill at Mar Lodge, Braemar. A bulletin issued this morning stated that tho Princess had a slight gastric hemorrhage yesterday. She passed a restful night but the condition of her heart is causing some anxiety. It is stated that the illness began with a chill. The Princess Royal was born in 1867. At the ape of 22 she married the late Earl of Fife. Her love match with the Earl, who was not of Royal blood, appealed strongly to tho public. The Earl was created Duke of t'.fe at the wedding breakfast. The Princess, with (he Duke and their two daughters, had nairow escapes from death in 1907 when the liner Delhi, in Which they were travelline for the opening of the Khartoum Cathedral, wni wrecked off Tangier. They were all thrown into tho sea when their lifeboat collapsed but were rescued by sailors. The Duke died in Egypt a month after the wreck. The Princess' elder daughter, the Duchess of Fife, who married Prince Arthur of Connaught. is at present staying at Mar Lodge. The Princess Royal's younger daughter is Lady Maud Carncgio.

REASSURING REPORTS. CONDITION OF PATIENT. MAY GO TO LONDON SOON. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received October 1. 5.15 n.m.) LONDON. Sept. 30. The latest messages from Braemar concerning tho condition of tho Princess Royal are more reassuring. It is hoped that her doctors will allow the Princess to travel to London at the end of the week. The Dowager Duchess of Fife, Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, the Princess Royal, was born on February 20, 1867, at Buckingham Palace. She is tho third child of the late King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra. She and her younger sisters, Princesses Victoria and Maud, now Queen of Norway, were brought up in simple fashion, being kept away from social excitements as far as possible. Most of their early days were spent at Sandringham. where they lived an open-air life. When Princess Louise was quite young she showed a marked taste for music and soon became a good pianist/ In Queen Victoria's jubilee year, 1887, she played in public at a charity concert. In her youth also she had some gift for drawing, which was developed by tuition and. as her home restrictions wero relaxed she became a keen lover of opera and the drama. King Edward conferred the title of Princess Royal upon her in 1905. The Princess suffered a severe attack of gastric hemorrhage in May, 1925. It was followed by considerable shock and weakness. The charming love story of the Princess and her husband is still a cherished tale in the cottages on the Mar Lodge estate. By way of proposal, it is said, the duko presented the Princess with a sprig of white heather, an old custom of shy Highland wooers which means " Will you be mine ? " . " The wedding took place in Ihe private chapel at Mar Lodge, the duke's Aberdeenshire estate, and afterwards tho Princess dispensed with a lady-in-waiting, preferring to be regarded as a Scottish duchess rather fhan as a royal princess. She used to decorate her rooms with flowers from the moors and forests rather than with hothouse blooms.