<\/p>\n
We\u2019re used to seeing royals at Wimbledon, with the Princess of Her story began much like those of so many of Queen Victoria\u2019s One of those cousins would shape the course of her life. Like Alexandra never forgave Prussia for the Schleswig-Holstein wars, Instead of becoming George\u2019s wife, Thora was one of the Those hopes gradually faded. Another prospective suitor, Prince Even so, Queen Victoria never entirely gave up on finding her She spent much of Queen Victoria\u2019s final years by her side, Yet hers was far from a sheltered existence. Thora loved the She became a familiar sight at the All England Championships at She also remained deeply devoted to her family. When her brother During the First World War she helped organise concerts to The Second World War brought further upheaval. Thora had been Despite these disruptions, her charitable work never faltered. A She became godmother to Prince William of Gloucester, the eldest Princess Helena Victoria died on 13 March 1948 and was buried at \u201cI know you of all others would be able to realise what the loss In many ways, the loss of her beloved grandmother marked the <\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re used to seeing royals at Wimbledon, with the Princess of Wales now patron of the All England Club. But rewind nine decades and another royal was a familiar face on Centre Court. A princess known to her family as Thora regularly appeared on Pathe newsreels presenting trophies and cheering on the tennis stars of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2494929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2494928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/This-princess-presented-the-trophies-at-Wimbledon-long-before-Kate.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2494928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494930,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494928\/revisions\/2494930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2494929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2494928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2494928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2494928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWales now patron of the All England Club. But rewind nine decades
\nand another royal was a familiar face on Centre Court. A princess
\nknown to her family as Thora<\/strong> regularly appeared on
\nPathe newsreels presenting trophies and cheering on the tennis
\nstars of the day. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, a keen
\nsportswoman and a royal who witnessed first-hand the transformation
\nof the monarchy from the Victorian age into the modern era.<\/p>\nAn unusual nickname for an unusual
\nprincess<\/h2>\n
\ndescendants. Born at Frogmore House on 3 May 1870, she was
\nchristened Victoria Louise Sophia Augusta Amelia
\nHelena<\/strong>. As was almost compulsory among Victoria\u2019s
\ngrandchildren, she was given her grandmother\u2019s name. She was the
\nthird child and first daughter of Princess Helena, Queen Victoria\u2019s
\nthird daughter, and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, who had
\nbeen permitted to marry Helena in 1866 on the condition that the
\ncouple lived permanently in Britain. Thora therefore grew up in
\nEngland, surrounded by her many royal cousins.<\/p>\n
\nevery other granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Thora was considered a
\npotential royal bride from an early age. The groom her family had
\nin mind was George, the second son of the future Edward VII and
\nAlexandra of Denmark. But his mother had other ideas.<\/p>\n
\nin which her native Denmark had suffered defeat. Thora\u2019s paternal
\nlineage was therefore always going to be an obstacle. The Princess
\nof Wales, still regarded as one of Europe\u2019s great beauties, was
\nalso dismissive of her niece\u2019s appearance, nicknaming her \u201cSnipe\u201d.
\nWriting to her son, Alexandra mocked the prospect of the match,
\nremarking: \u201cWell, it would be a pleasure to welcome that \u2018beauty\u2019
\nas your bride.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom potential bride to overlooked
\nbridesmaid<\/h2>\n
\nbridesmaids when he married Mary of Teck in the Chapel Royal at St
\nJames\u2019s Palace on 6 July 1893. At just 23, she still hoped she
\nmight one day become a royal bride herself.<\/p>\n
\nErnest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, instead married her cousin,
\nPrincess Alexandra of Edinburgh, and as Thora approached her
\nthirtieth birthday she remained unmarried.<\/p>\n
\ngranddaughter a husband. In 1899, the Queen wrote to her eldest
\ndaughter about another possible match with Prince Johannes of
\nHohenlohe-Langenburg. Religion proved an insurmountable obstacle,
\nhowever, as he was Roman Catholic, and the marriage never
\nmaterialised. Instead, Thora settled into a life devoted to her
\nmother, her grandmother and public service.<\/p>\n
\nhelping organise and record some of the monarch\u2019s memoirs and
\ndiaries. Those writings would later be edited with the assistance
\nof Princess Beatrice. At the same time, Thora became increasingly
\ninvolved with many of the charitable organisations supported by her
\nmother, beginning a lifetime of public service.<\/p>\nA princess with a passion for
\nsport<\/h2>\n
\noutdoors and developed a lifelong passion for sport, particularly
\ntennis.<\/p>\n
\nWimbledon and later at other major tournaments, including the Davis
\nCup, where she presented trophies on several occasions. Golf was
\nanother favourite pastime, shared with her brother Prince
\nAlbert.<\/p>\n
\nPrince Christian Victor died during the Boer War, Thora accompanied
\nher mother to South Africa to visit his grave.<\/p>\n
\nentertain troops, but the conflict also changed her own identity.
\nIn 1917, King George V ordered members of the Royal Family to
\nrelinquish their German titles. The name Schleswig-Holstein, which
\nhad caused so much resentment for Queen Alexandra, disappeared from
\nher style. The cousin once rejected as a potential bride became
\nsimply Her Highness Princess Helena Victoria<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nliving with her sister, Princess Marie Louise, at Schomberg House
\nin London, but as the conflict intensified the sisters moved to the
\ncountryside for safety. They eventually returned to discover their
\nhome had been damaged, forcing them to settle instead in Berkeley
\nSquare.<\/p>\n
\nsurprising amount of newsreel footage survives showing Princess
\nHelena Victoria opening hospitals, attending charitable events and
\npresenting prizes at the sporting occasions she loved.<\/p>\n
\nson of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, at his christening in
\n1942. Five years later she watched him serve as a page boy at the
\nwedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Westminster
\nAbbey. It would prove to be her final major public appearance.<\/p>\n
\nFrogmore, where her story had begun almost 78 years earlier.<\/p>\n
\nof darling Grandmama is to me,\u201d she wrote shortly after Queen
\nVictoria\u2019s death in response to a letter of condolence.<\/p>\n
\nbeginning of a new chapter. Helena Victoria moved from the intimate
\nworld of Queen Victoria\u2019s court into a monarchy that was becoming
\nincreasingly modern. It is easy to dismiss her as a forgotten
\nVictorian princess, but she quietly bridged two very different
\nroyal eras. Through her charity work, her love of sport and her
\nsteadfast sense of duty, she built a meaningful public life of her
\nown. By the time she died, she was remembered not simply as Queen
\nVictoria\u2019s granddaughter, but as a princess who embraced change
\nwith quiet dignity and earned the lasting respect of her
\nfamily.<\/p>\n