Charlotte Knollys

Elizabeth Charlotte Knollys (c. 1835 – 1930) was a Lady of the Bedchamber, and the first woman private secretary, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

Biography

The daughter of Sir William Thomas Knollys, a successful military figure and Comptroller of the Household to Edward VII the Prince of Wales, and his wife, Elizabeth St. Aubyn, Charlotte Knollys (her middle name became her practical forename) was sent into Alexandra's service as a Lady of the Bedchamber. The Princess of Wales came to rely heavily on her. By the late 1880s she began to perform duties as a private secretary. Alexandra required her services more when she was in mourning, for example when her beloved son, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, died in 1892.^{[citation needed]}

Upon Edward's ascension to the throne, when Queen Victoria died in 1901, Charlotte was officially installed at Alexandra's side. She performed all duties as private secretary and was also in Alexandra's complete confidence. However, this came at the price of having little freedom, a price which grew much more oppressive when Edward died in 1910. Alexandra, now Queen Dowager, shut herself away in seclusion at Sandringham House, in Norfolk, England, her favourite home. Charlotte wrote in a letter dated a year before Alexandra's death in 1925:

H.M. is so fond of Sandringham...she readily falls in with the doctor's advice that she should not tire herself with all the hurry and bustle of the Season...As far as I'm concerned, I am a 'Cockney born and bred', and down here I can never see my friends and relations and seem quite cut off from all the world." (Letter to an unknown Gentleman; Private Manuscript collection)

Later years

Her leave of service came upon Alexandra's death in 1925. During her service, she was credited as the first woman private secretary to the Sovereign, and the first person not of royal blood to enter the Queen's boudoir without invitation. She was presented with a gold medal after saving Alexandra from a fire.^{[citation needed]}

Death

She died, aged 95, unmarried, in London in 1930; her death was registered at St. George Hanover Square.^[1]

See also

• Knollys (family)

References

1. ^ Civil Registration event: Death
   Name: KNOLLYS, Elizabeth C.; Registration District: St. George Hanover Square; County: London; Year of Registration: 1930; Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun; Age at death: 95; Volume No: 1A/Page No: 449 as per death extract from GRO at Findmypast.co.uk, giving age at death as 95

Persondata
Name	Knollys, Charlotte
Alternative names	Knollys, Elizabeth Charlotte
Short description	Lady of the Bedchamber, and first woman private secretary, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra of the UK)
Date of birth	c. 1835
Place of birth
Date of death	1930
Place of death	London, England, UK