Ian Handford: Why Torbay was this Royal's favourite destination

For over half a century, Princess Marie Louise devoted herself to charitable and social causes, including nursing lepers, assisting troublesome youths and getting involved with organisations wanting to help those in extreme poverty.

Her main causes included the St Christophers Fellowship, the Navy League, Guide Dogs for the Blind and a London local boxing club. She even supported the University College Hospital, the South Eastern Hospital for Children and, through them, the Friends of the Poor.

A regular at local bazaars, fêtes and exhibitions, the princess was known for her elegant committee work. Her height lent an added dignity to formal events, and her speeches were praised as “neat and pointed”—a refreshing contrast to more routine addresses.

It seems her happiest years were those between the two World Wars, when she shared Schomberg House in Pall Mall with her sister, Princess Helena Victoria. The sisters regularly hosted gatherings, particularly for friends with musical interests.

Being a devout Christian, the princess kept her marriage vows "sacrosanct and binding" and not something she might lightly put aside due to what she saw as an “arbitrary local family law” of Germany.

The annulment was finalised in December 1900, and she never remarried. The princess became the last of the British royals to be allowed the prestigious title of “Her Highness” (HH).

In the Great War of 1914-1918, she established a 100-bed hospital at Bermondsey under the direction of the War Office and uniquely chose not to wear a uniform. Yet when visiting the wards, one amusing story tells of a patient refusing a raw egg and iced champagne (to Her Highness, a delicacy) for eel pie, etc.

The princess remarked, "How could anyone prefer this dish over egg and champagne?" only to hear, “Princess, you ought to taste my wife’s jellied eels."

A keen churchwoman, she became Dame of the Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and later Lady President of the Order of Mercy. Then in April 1931 she lost her only surviving brother, and even more devastatingly, in March 1948 her beloved sister Helen Victoria died. Now she decided to build and stock a new, very elaborate doll's house as a gift to Queen Mary.

Having secured the support of the architect Edwin Lutyens, he designed it, and apparently the princess then wrote no less than two thousand letters to secure financing for the major project. The House" and its collection of miniatures are today on display at Windsor Castle.

The princess, via her lady-in-waiting Evelyn (Miss Wills), made frequent visits to our area and stayed sometimes at Rainbow House – home of Ella Rowcroft – although more often in the Royal Suite of the five-star Imperial Hotel Torquay. She always chose to worship at St Michael’s Church and at her special birthdays, 1951 and 1952.

The princess was a voracious reader of history, biographies and detective stories, and as president of the British Empire Shakespeare Society (BESS), she even chaired meetings at the Haymarket and theatre dome of Her Majesty's. Having been honoured in 1919 with a GBE from King George V, years later she received a DGCVO from Queen Elizabeth II in the Coronation Year (1953).

Having attended a function at Normount Villa, at the time owned by Mrs Nelson, this villa remains an important building of our era. It would be 50 years later before a Blue Plaque was arranged for the villa, still seen as one of the best surviving Italianate villas of the past. It had by then been extended to form Bishops Court Hotel on Lower Warberrys Road and today is under development once again.

The princess finally published a book of her reminiscences in the year of her death entitled “My Memories of Six Reigns”, which sold an amazing 40,000 copies. Sadly, she was unable to deliver her message of greeting at the launch and, due to failing health, mere days later died at the grace and favour residence at Fitzmaurice Place on 8 December 1956.