Six Degrees of Separation

I was inspired, on reading a post by Debs Carr, Meeting The Queen, to relate a couple of stories about my family.

I was reminded of the first by a photo of Debs' grandmother's white gloves, which she'd worn to shake the hand of Queen Elizabeth II.  Debs, as she says, tried the gloves on - and who wouldn't?

Glenkindie House

In one of my earlier posts, My Family & Other Tales, I mention a house, Glenkindie, that had been in our family for 400 years.  Why it, and many of the possessions that were so special to us, is no longer with us is another story - and will go in a book.

It's in Aberdeenshire, about 27 miles from Balmoral.

My great grandmother, Gee Gee as we called her, was very close to the Royal family.  She had danced before Queen Victoria and they were great friends with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and would be invited as guests on the Royal Yacht.

Northcourt

Queen Victoria loved the Isle of Wight, where she died.  My family also had a house on the island, Northcourt.  So there was continuity to the friendship and they would see each other there, too.

Princess Beatrice, the youngest of Queen Victoria's children, kept in close contact with my family and, when my father was born, was asked to be his godmother.  She accepted.  In a family album, which is at our home in France, I have a christening photo where the Princess is holding my father.

Princess Beatrice

I didn't dance with a man who danced with a woman who danced with the Prince of Wales.  I think I went one further.  I was held by a man, who was held by a woman, who was held by Queen Victoria.

My mother reminded me the family were also friends with King George VI and Queen Mary.  When visiting Glenkindie my great great grandfather flashed at the Queen.  On subsequent visits he had to be locked in the east wing!

The second experience of how history is so tangible also involves Gee Gee.

Gee Gee

My mother met my great grandmother in the 50s, by which time Gee Gee was an old lady.  She was wearing a ring, two pearls, one black, one pink.  My mother admired it, and Gee Gee told her it had belonged to Marie Antoinette.  My mother asked how she knew.  She explained when she was a very little girl she had met a very old woman whose mother had had her in her 40s and she, as a young girl, had been a lady in waiting to the Queen, who gave her the ring.

Marie Antoinette was beheaded in 1793, my great grandmother was born in 1883.

I remember Gee Gee had some lovely jewellery, which I saw as a child.  She sent me a couple of pieces, that sadly I lost in a burglary.  But we don't know what happened to the pearl ring after her death in 1972.

The final one, although I'm sure there are others, involves my mother's father.  He was visiting Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire.  In a pub he met a very old man who had fought at Trafalgar as a very young boy.

Is that six degrees of separation?  Seems very, very close to me, which makes these links even more fascinating.