Elizabeth Charlotte Knollys (c. 1835 – 1930) was a Lady of the Bedchamber

Lady of the Bedchamber

This is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...

, and the first woman private secretary, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark

Alexandra of Denmark

Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...

, later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

.

Biography

The daughter of Sir William Thomas Knollys

William Thomas Knollys

General Sir William Thomas Knollys KCB was a British Army General who reached high office in the 1860s.-Military career:...

, a successful military figure and Comptroller of the Household to Edward VII the Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

, 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

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale was a member of the British Royal Family. He was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales , and the grandson of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria...

, died in 1892.

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

Queen Dowager

A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. In the case of the widow of a deceased emperor, the title of empress dowager is used...

, shut herself away in seclusion at Sandringham House

Sandringham House

Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...

, 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

Boudoir

A boudoir is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning "to be sulky" or boudeur, meaning "sulky".- In architecture :...

without invitation. She was presented with a gold medal after saving Alexandra from a fire.

Death

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