It’s the season for celebrating holidays, but there’s a veteran tiara-wearing princess celebrating her birthday on Christmas Day, too! In honor of tomorrow’s birthday celebrations for Princess Alexandra, we’ve got a look back at the glittering tiaras she’s worn over the decades.
Princess Alexandra, the only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, was born on Christmas Day in 1936. Her birth was a bright spot in an otherwise tumultuous year for the British royal family. Her grandfather, King George V, had died in January 1936. He was succeeded by her uncle, King Edward VIII, but as we all know, his reign was short, culminating in his abdication in December 1936. Another of Alexandra’s uncles, King George VI, ascended to the throne just a few weeks before her birth. The news of a new addition to the family gave the papers a chance to print some happy royal news. “Christmas Day bells in London heralded the birth of a princess who will be sixth in the line of succession,” one paper exclaimed. The new King and Queen were asked to serve as godparents, emphasizing the family’s support for the new monarch after the abdication.
The Duchess gave birth to her daughter just before noon, and a trumpeter was playing Christmas carols near the family’s home in Belgravia as doctors arrived. The little princess was named Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel. The names honored her paternal great-grandmother, the late Queen Alexandra; her maternal grandmother, Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (who was born Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia); and her mother’s sisters, Countess Elizabeth of Törring-Jettenbach and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia. Her final name, Christabel, was bestowed on the princess to commemorate her Christmas birth. She shared the name with her aunt, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who was also born on Christmas Day.
Alexandra and her siblings, Prince Edward and Prince Michael, were raised by their mother after their father’s untimely death in 1942. The Kent children spent much of their childhood at Coppins, the family’s country home in Buckinghamshire. Alexandra was educated at the Heathfield School in Ascot near Windsor Castle and in Paris. She reportedly nurtured a wish to serve with the WRNS; her mother compromised by allowing her to train as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
The Christmas princess turned 18 in December 1954, two years after her cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, had ascended to the throne. She became a popular debutante, boogeying to a signature song, “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” at balls throughout her debut year. Alexandra’s transition to adulthood also meant that it was time for her to begin wearing tiaras and grand gala jewels. This portrait photograph, taken by Dorothy Wilding in 1955, shows Alexandra wearing a lacy diamond bandeau-style tiara that once belonged to her grandmother, Queen Mary. She also wears the Royal Family Orders of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. She is now the last living member of the George VI order.
Alexandra often paired the tiara, which she borrowed from her mother, with a diamond and pearl festoon necklace. Above, she wears the tiara and necklace together during the celebrations of the wedding of her cousin, Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, and Princess Maria Pia of Savoy in February 1955.
Princess Alexandra has been a working member of the royal family for more than six decades, and she’s often been seen wearing sparkling tiaras for diplomatic moments. Here, she wears the same diamond bandeau from Queen Mary’s collection for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in October 1958 in honor of the visiting President of West Germany. On this occasion, she paired the tiara with diamond flower earrings, a diamond necklace, and a diamond and pearl brooch. This gala event took place near the end of Alexandra’s tenure wearing this particular tiara. In 1961, it was worn by her new sister-in-law, Katharine Worsley, for her wedding to Alexandra’s elder brother, the Duke of Kent. From then, the tiara remained with Katharine, who later had the piece redesigned.
Two years later, in October 1960, Alexandra was tasked with representing the Queen during a very important moment: the ceremony in Lagos that made Nigeria an independent nation. For this significant occasion, she borrowed a larger tiara from Princess Marina’s collection: the Kent Pearl Festoon Tiara. Today, the tiara is worn by Alexandra’s sister-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent.
Like her cousin, Princess Margaret, Alexandra was the subject of an enormous amount of speculation about when and whom she would marry. The press proposed eligible candidates that included King Baudouin of Belgium, Crown Prince Harald of Norway, Prince Juan Carlos of Spain, and Crown Prince Constantine of the Hellenes. Closer to home, reporters guessed that she might be interested in a romance with the Marquess of Hamilton, son and heir of the Duke of Abercorn. (He later married a royal cousin, Alexandra Phillips.)
Interestingly, Alexandra struck up a romance with her actual beau, the Hon. Angus Ogilvy, at a ball held at the home of Alexandra Phillips’s grandparents, Luton Hoo, in the early 1950s. Angus, who was eight years older than Alexandra, was a younger son of the Earl of Airlie, and his grandmother, Mabell, had been a close friend of Queen Mary. By 1959, Angus was described as Alexandra’s “constant companion” by the papers. The couple announced their engagement in November 1962, and they were married in a glittering ceremony at Westminster Abbey on April 24, 1963. For the wedding, Alexandra borrowed another glamorous tiara from her mother: the Kent City of London Fringe Tiara, which Marina had received as a wedding present in 1934. Today, the fringe tiara also belongs to Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
Alexandra was also pictured in another tiara that had been given to Princess Marina as a wedding present. This unusual diamond and pearl bandeau, with a snaky scrolling design, was presented to Marina in 1934 by her parents, Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, to celebrate her marriage to the Duke of Kent. The Romanov tiara’s history is said to extend back a generation further: Geoffrey Munn states that the tiara was likely given to Princess Nicholas by her mother, Grand Duchess Vladimir.
In the years after her marriage, Alexandra wore the pearl bandeau for several occasions. Here, she wears the tiara for a dinner party in Paris given by the British ambassador to France, Christopher Soames. She has paired the tiara with more diamond and pearl jewels, including her replica of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace, which is said to have been given to her by her husband. After Marina’s death, the family decided to sell the tiara to help pay estate taxes, and it now belongs to a private collector.
Alexandra’s jewelry box is still filled today with even more pieces set with diamonds and pearls. For this portrait, taken in the 1950s, she wears her diamond and pearl festoon necklace, her elaborate diamond and pearl drop brooch, diamond earrings, and a diamond bracelet that can also be worn as part of a choker necklace. She also wears several diamond and pearl flower ornaments in her hair.
At the time of Alexandra’s engagement to Angus, the flower ornaments were incorporated into a new tiara. The Ogilvy Tiara, as it is generally called, surrounds the flowers with diamond ribbon ornaments. Reportedly made by Collingwood, the tiara is apparently the only one personally owned by Alexandra today. Above, she wears the tiara for the return dinner during the Sudanese state visit to Britain in 1964.
The Ogilvy Tiara is the only tiara that Alexandra has worn in public since the 1970s. It’s helpful that it’s a versatile piece. The pearl centers of each flower can be removed and replaced with sapphires or turquoises, allowing the tiara to match with a large range of other pieces of jewelry and clothing. Here, she wears the sapphire setting of the tiara with coordinating jewels, including diamond frame earrings and her gorgeous geometric diamond brooch.
We most recently saw Alexandra wear gala jewelry, including the Ogilvy Tiara, during the American state visit to Britain in the spring of 2019. For the banquet at Buckingham Palace, she wore the pearl setting of the tiara with her small pearl and diamond frame earrings, her large diamond and pearl drop brooch, and her diamond and pearl choker necklace, which can also be worn as a pair of bracelets. Another pearl bracelet on her right wrist completed the look.
In the autumn of 2021, we saw the Ogilvy Tiara sparkling on another generation of Alexandra’s family. Flora Ogilvy, the daughter of Alexandra’s son, James, wore the tiara for her wedding to Timothy Vesterberg at St. James’s Church, Piccadilly. Flora also borrowed her grandmother’s pearl earrings for the ceremony. A floral heirloom tiara for a royal granddaughter named Flora—what could be better?
Princess Alexandra has largely retired as a working member of the royal family, but we do still occasionally get to see glimpses of her in public. Last week, she joined the extended royal family at Buckingham Palace for the King’s annual Christmas luncheon. Just days before her 88th birthday, the princess was photographed smiling as she was driven to the palace, wearing a classic, elegant pair of pearl and diamond button earrings from her personal jewelry collection.
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