Buckingham Palace has been the home of many royals in the past, including some lesser-known members of the Royal Family. While some very famous royals have called the Palace home, including Queen Elizabeth II, less famous royals have also lived within the Palace walls.
One of these royals is Princess Alice, Prince Philip’s mother. While she was born in the UK, Alice lived in Greece for most of her life after marrying into the Greek Royal Family.
However, she eventually moved back to the UK permanently in 1967, following the Greek military coup.
While this was not Princess Alice’s choice, with her son, Prince Philip, sending a plane and a special request from his wife, Queen Elizabeth, to encourage his mother back to the UK, the princess seemed happy enough to be on UK soil.
While this meant she had a comfortable life, it seems that living in a Palace was not always fun and games for Princess Alice, especially when she accidentally set her apartment on fire.
This is a claim made by royal biographer Tom Quinn in his book Yes Ma’am, in which he reveals Alice was a smoker, which led to accidental fires in her apartment.
Agnes Cooke, who worked in the royal kitchen for a number of years, told Quinn: “Well, there was a lady in waiting who was very friendly with Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, when Alice was living at Buckingham Palace, and they used to smoke cigarettes together in Alice’s apartment – so much so that they regularly set fire to it.
”And despite being very grand indeed – a member of one of Britain’s oldest and most aristocratic families – this particular lady in waiting used to wander about with a cigarette stuck behind her ear, like a coal miner or a carpenter.”
It is believed that these accidental fires never led to any serious incidents.
Alice lived at Buckingham Palace in London until she died in December 1969, aged 84.