Michael Reed, a historian at
Australia’s Ilim College, found the fascinating similarities between the Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge’s relatives.
Until now the parallels
between Gertrude Middleton, the sister of Kate’s great-grandfather Noel
Middleton, and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Prince Philip’s mother, have gone
undocumented.
Mr. Reed discovered that the
two women became nuns, worked as volunteer nurses during the First World War
and carried out social work.
However, they also had darker
sides to their stories as they were both treated at mental institutions.
Mr. Reed told the Telegraph:
“They basically lived parallel lives, a few years apart.
“Both were volunteer
nurses in connection with the Red Cross – Gertrude during the First World War,
and Princess Alice during the first and second.
“They both acted as
dedicated social workers for the homeless and disadvantaged and proved to be
generous financial benefactors. They were both very religious, becoming nuns.
“But most startling of all was
the revelation that Gertrude, like Princess Alice, had been a patient in a
mental hospital. Their stories are both fascinating and sad.
“I was amazed to unearth
photos of both ladies in their volunteer nurses’ uniform.”
It was already known that the
Duke of Edinburgh’s mother, who features in Netflix’s royal drama The Crown, was
a patient in a sanatorium in Switzerland in 1930 after being diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
She died at Buckingham Palace
in 1965 aged 84.
