EXILED "EMPRESS"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18991, 16 April 1936, Page 12

EXILED "EMPRESS"

DEATH IN BAVARIA RELATED TO I.ATK CZAR LONDON, March 7. The Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, wife a: Ihe Grand Duke Cyril, heir (o [he throne of Hie Czars "!' Russia, died [his week al the Bavarian home of her sister, the Princess Iloheulohe Bnngciiburg. Her husband and another sister, Queen Marie of Rumania, ivere with her al the end. The Grand Duke Cyril proclaimed himself Emperor of Russia in 1924, and the Grand Duchess, although exiled and uncrowned, was Empress and CzAfitsa. She was first cousin once removed of King Edwnrd VIII, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, sister of Queen Marie of Rumania, and aunt of King Carol of Rumania. she was a Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, ,and a representative of the British Royal Family was present at her funeral. Her fgathe.r was a son of Queen Victoria—Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who afterwards 'became Duke of Saxe Cdburg and Got ha, and she was born in Malta. As Princess Victoria, she was married twice. Her first husband (1894) was the Grand Duke of Hesse, brother of the late Emperor of Russia. After this marriage was dissolved, she married in 190;1 the Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, a cousin of the murdered Czar. The Czar refused consent to the wedding, but it took place in Germany. The Grand Duke was banished, * but afterwards, through (his bravery as* a naval officer, was pardoned/ He and his wife were among the few menrberjs of the Russian Imperial family who escaped massacre by Ihe Bolsheviks. Their palace was pillaged, and with no other belongings than the clothing they wore they crossed the frozen Gulf of Finland on foot.

The Grand Duchess endured, great sufferings, and there were narrow escapes from Bolshevik patrols. Her son. Grand Duke Vladiniinir, was born a few months after their arrival in Finland. hi 1924., her husband, as nearest in line to his murdered cousin, proclaimed .himself Czar.

Both the Grand Duchess and the Grand Duke came to London for the wedding of the Duke of Kent in 1934. They were received at Victoria Station on behalf of King George V by his equerry-in-waiting, Lord Alastair Robert Jnnes-Ker, who died a few hours 'before the Gram] Duchess.