Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

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Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, the longest-lived member of the Royal Family, was born on this day in 1901. The fifth child of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Margaret Bridgeman, she grew between the family estates of Boughton House in Northamptonshire, Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway, and Bowhill in the Scottish Borders, and Eildon Hall and spent much of her youth traveling around the world. In 1935, she married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George V, just weeks after the death of her father and weeks before the death of his. The couple had two sons, Prince William and Prince Richard, and resided at Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire and York House, St James’s Palace. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were active members of the royal family, and he even served as Governor-General of Australia in the 1940s. The 1970s were marked by tragedy, as her eldest son died in a plane crash and the Duke passed away just two years later. In the 1990s, the family were forced to give up Barnwell Manor for financial reasons, and Princess Alice (a title granted specially by the Queen after she became widowed, it allowed her near parity to her sister-in-law, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent) moved to Kensington Palace with her younger son and his family. She wrote her autobiography The Memoirs of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and her last public appearance was on her 100th Birthday. Princess Alice passed away in her sleep in 2004 and was the longest-lived person in the history of the British Royal Family.