Remembering Princess Louise of Battenberg: Prince Philip’s maverick aunt who worked as a nurse, fell in love with a penniless painter and became the Queen of Sweden
Prince Philip’s aunt Princess Louise of Battenberg, who married this week in 1923, remains respected as an uncompromising and best-loved figure
Princess Louise of Battenberg came from one of Europe’s most noble families: her great-grandmother was Queen Victoria; her brother, Louis, was created Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and would one day become ‘honorary grandfather’ to King Charles; her sister, Alice, was mother to Prince Philip. But what was the life story of this little-known royal, who went on to become the Queen of Sweden?
Princess Louise grew up at the sprawling Schloss Heiligenberg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and was known as Lady Louise Mountbatten when her father, Prince Louis, was created the first Marquess of Milford Haven by George V in 1917. The family moved around between different territories in the British Empire, and Louise often visited her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, at Osborne, her beloved home on the Isle of Wight. It was, by all accounts, a happy childhood: Louise’s parents were very much in love, and she greatly enjoyed the company of her siblings, particularly her brother, with whom she remained in correspondence all her life.
Louise Mountbatten originally fell in love with a painter, Alexander Stuart-Hill, before she married King Gustavus VI Adolf of Sweden
During the First World War, the Princess enlisted in the Red Cross as a nurse and was awarded the British War and Victory medals for for her outstanding service. It was during this time, in a field-hospital in Nevers, that she met a fellow volunteer: Sandy Hill, a penniless artist who was born above the family fish shop in Perth. Against all odds and despite their different backgrounds, they fell in love, with Louise describing him as ‘the person I have always looked for end never thought I should find. He understands love and marriage in the same way I do.’
Sandy, who had been a notable talent at the Edinburgh School of Art, had won a travelling scholarship which allowed him to explore Europe extensively. After the war, he settled in Paris, where Louise joined him. Queen Victoria enjoyed his company – even describing him as ‘witty and shy, a thoroughly good fellow’ – but not everyone approved of the unorthodox match. ‘I went around London with the two of them, but everyone turns in the street and laughs at him. She is madly in love with him, but he is so incredibly affected,’ Princess Alice, Louise’s sister, is said to have remarked.
A wedding portrait of Adolf and Louise surrounded by bridesmaids and attendants, taken in 1923
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Even so, the couple secretly became engaged, while Sandy – now calling himself Alexander Stuart-Hill – set about trying to impress his fiancée’s social set, even staying a few times with Louise’s parents. After some time, however, Louise’s father realised that he would have to call a halt to their romance – for one very important reason, of which Louise was entirely unaware. The Marquess was ‘finally was forced to tell Louise that she could not marry [Sandy] because he was homosexual,’ writes Hugo Vickers in Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece. ‘In those unsophisticated times, Louise had grown up unaware of what homosexuality was, or indeed that such a possibility existed.’
After the breakdown of their relationship, Sandy moved to a studio in fashionable Chelsea and became part of the 1920s smart set, counting Evelyn Waugh and Florence Mills among his friends. Louise, meanwhile, was heartbroken and, at 29 years old, convinced that she would never marry. However, she was wrong: at 35, she became engaged to Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden, a 41-year old widower. ‘Her engagement took everybody by surprise, not least Louise herself,’ writes Vickers. ‘But she had found a rare man.’
Adolf and Louise were a much-loved couple, and the Queen Consort dedicated herself to many important philanthropic causes
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Louise rose magnificently to the challenge of royal life, and was swiftly given all manner of patronages – although she found it, as she said, hard ‘to be the protector of different institutions, as I have been accustomed to practical work, as an ordinary person, before my marriage’. Despite meeting some tragedy (her only child, a daughter, was stillborn in 1925) she dedicated her life to the causes of others, and became known for her modern and progressive views. Louise often advocated for causes such as gender equality, and the fair pay and treatment of nurses – indeed, such was her commitment to the Red Cross, that she was active in aid work for the organisation during World War II.
At the age of 61 in October 1950, Louise became Queen of Sweden when her husband ascended the throne, and proved to be immensely popular both at home and abroad. She was wonderfully eccentric, and travelled everywhere with a collection of Pomeranian dogs, which she would attempt to hide under her clothes when going through customs – much to the chagrin of the officers. She was once almost hit by a bus in London (as she would frequently jaywalk) and thereafter kept a small card on her person, printed with the words, ‘I am the Queen of Sweden’, so that she could be identified if she were ever in a car accident.
Celebrating her 72nd birthday, Queen Louise relaxes in the garden at Sofiero Castle in Sweden, with her husband and one of her dogs, Mitzie
Bettmann
During the 1950s, Louise suffered a few minor heart attacks. Her health deteriorated significantly during the autumn of 1964, and she was taken ill following the Nobel Banquet in December of that year, which was to be her final public appearance. She died in Stockholm in March 1965 and is buried beside her husband and his first wife, Crown Princess Margaret, in the city‘s royal cemetery. To this day, she is remembered as a pioneering royal, who flouted convention, stood up for her beliefs, and undertook her duty with style.
