QUEEN Alexandra, a rather forgotten queen, was the subject of a talk given to members of Oakley and Deane WI at their August meeting.

She was born in 1844 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen to Prince Christian and Princess Louise. Her family had been relatively obscure until her father Prince Christian succeeded his cousin Frederick VII to the Danish throne. Although the family were of royal blood they lived a comparatively normal life not possessing great wealth and living in a grace and favour house. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were rather concerned with finding a suitable bride for their heir, Albert Edward, and after considering many possible choices they decided Alexandra was the only one to be chosen and they eventually married in l863.

Upon the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 Albert became King Edward VII with Alexandra as Queen-consort. They had six children and although she liked socialising and became involved with a lot of charitable work she was very involved with looking after the children and spent more time with them and their pets as she suffered an increasing degree of deafness leading to some isolation. Although Edward was a bit of a philanderer she always stood by him and was very popular with the public. She also had a great influence on the fashions of the day particularly with neck chokers as she always wore one to hide a childhood scar on her neck.

She helped raise funds to purchase a river launch to ferry the wounded during the Sudan Campaign and to fit out a hospital ship, named Princess of Wales, to ferry back wounded from the Boer war and following this the Queen Alexandra’s Military Service was renamed the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps under Royal Warrant.

Edward VII died in 1910 and their son George became king, so until her death in 1925 she was the Queen Mother. Although not in good health she continued with her charity work and looked after her grandchildren while their parents were on tours but during the war she suffered increasingly ill health and died of a heart attack in 1925 and is buried in an elaborate tomb next to her husband in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Details were given of various forthcoming events including a visit to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen’s royal diamonds exhibition, the federation autumn meeting at The Anvil , a speaker’s selection day at Oakley Village Hall and a skittles evening. The Autumn group meeting will be held at Church Cottage on October 3, and there will be a competition for a red, white and blue craft item.

A report was also given on a most successful and enjoyable village show at which the two WIs in the village provided refreshments and ran a tombola stall.

At their September meeting, members will try their hand at new age curling, any visitors will be most welcome. The meeting takes place at the usual venue of the Andover Road Village Hall at 7.30pm.