Today I learned that Princess Alexandra of Britain was deaf but became a fashion icon. And Queen Victoria tried forbidding her from hunting, to which she, of course, didn't listen and hunted anyway because... she could.
Even after the birth of her first child, Alexandra continued to socialise much as before, which led to some friction between the Queen and the young couple, exacerbated by Alexandra's loathing of Prussians and the Queen's partiality towards them.
She adapted to her hearing loss, and sources suggest Queen Victoria even learned to fingerspell to communicate with her. Alexandra also supported the deaf community through charity.
Alexandra was highly popular with the British public. Funds that she helped to collect were used to buy a river launch, called
Alexandra, to ferry the wounded during the Sudan campaign, and to fit out a hospital ship, named
The Princess of Wales, to bring back wounded from the Boer War. During the Boer War, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, later renamed Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, was founded under Royal Warrant.
Alexandra's husband, Albert Edward (nicknamed "Bertie"), was Victoria and Albert's eldest son. His parents, especially Victoria, wanted him to be as learned as Albert himself, but Bertie was not an intellectual. At age six, Edward embarked on a rigorous educational programme devised by Albert, and supervised by several tutors, who frankly overloaded him with information but never helped him understand it. (His schooling began at 8am every day and didn't finish until 8pm). He was not allowed play sport or socialise with his peers. Later on in life, he would reminisce sadly: "I never had a childhood."
Although Bertie was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent and of sweet manner. But sadly, his upbringing is a good example of how not to raise a child.
