Simon Bowes-Lyon, the. He also commented on the absence of any attempt to find out why the sisters had been placed in care in 1941, writing "this was the one part of the story that was genuinely still a mystery. Onelle Braithwaite, a nurse who cared for Nerissa and Katherine, said their story was common knowledge around the institution. [1], Last edited on 25 February 2023, at 15:34, John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Michael Bowes-Lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Scots peerage: founded on Wood's ed. “Locked up and neglected,” Princess Margaret rages at her mother. Nerissa (1919–1986) and Katherine Bowes-Lyon (1926–2014) were two of the five daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother’s brother) and his wife Fenella. Nerissa and Katherine are two of the daughters of John Bowes-Lyon, who is brother to the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. In a touching moment that is now repeated by all royal . King Charles Releases His Official Coronation Portrait. “It is not normal to doubt the word of members of the royal family.”. “Their professionally diagnosed idiocy and imbecility would make people question the integrity of the bloodline…can you imagine the headlines if it were to get out? Following the marriage in 1767 of the 9th Earl (John Lyon) to rich heiress Mary Eleanor Bowes, the family name was changed to Bowes by Act of Parliament. “They were unable to recognize visitors, often becoming hugely distressed as they struggled to work out who was with them. All rights reserved. She was credited with . [2] Sie verneinte auch Berichte, dass ihre Familie den Kontakt zu den Schwestern abgebrochen habe. Es folgten kontroverse Diskussionen und Fragen, ob die Royal Family sich „herzlos“ gegenüber ihren Verwandten verhalten habe. John was the brother of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, so the two daughters were first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, sharing one pair of grandparents, Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.[2]. Who were the Queen's 'hidden' cousins Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon? For more than a decade, campaigners have asked Britain to repatriate the body of Prince Alemayehu, who was buried at St. George’s Chapel when he died at 18 in 1879. “Their illness, their idiocy and imbecility would make people question the integrity of the bloodline. They were essentially hidden from the world in 1941 when their family – their own flesh and blood –  sent them to the Royal Earlswood Institution for Mental Defectives. This video's focus is mostly arou. Ad Choices. No-nonsense help and explainers to help you navigate your next career move, whether you’re unemployed or gunning for that big promotion. [10] Selbst der Vater der beiden Schwestern habe sie im Pflegeheim nie besucht. Ihre Mutter war die jüngere Tochter von Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21. Kontrovers diskutiert wurden unter anderem Filmaufnahmen von Katherine Bowes-Lyon, die ein amerikanisches Fernsehteam um Geraldo Rivera heimlich im Pflegeheim erstellt hatte. He told the Telegraph that the Royal Family were not pleased with the depiction, stating: ‘I wouldn’t say there is upset in the family, but I think people are frustrated and would like the record put straight.’, He also refuted the idea, as portrayed in the episode, that Princess Margaret was unaware of her cousins’ existence and shocked and appalled to learn of their situation. She discovers that the sisters, who suffered from developmental disabilities, have been secreted away in a mental hospital because, says the Queen Mother in the episode, ‘The hereditary principle already hangs by such a precarious thread… Throw in mental illness, and it’s over.’. Decades later, the Windsors would likely prefer to leave this shameful episode consigned to the ash heap of the past, but Morgan has dragged the skeletons out of the royal closet, excavating the Windsors’ shameful secret in a tender episode about family, faith, and mental illness. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Die drei waren Kinder von Major Henry Nevile Fane und Harriet Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis (1887–1958), einer Schwester von Nerissas und Katherines Mutter Fenella. The ties to the royal family mean . The gene pool of that family better have 100% purity. Dann wurden die Cousinen der Queen jedoch in die psychiatrische Einrichtung „Royal Earlswood Hospital" abgeschoben. Samantha Vincenty is the former senior staff writer at Oprah Daily. In 1996, when Earlswood was shut down, the administrator of the hospital, Peter Kinsey, contacted the next-of-kin of all patients to inform them of the shutdown and discuss next steps. While much of The Crown’s version of events is imagined, one feature does ring true; a sense of the damaging societal attitudes towards mental illness at the time, derided as something shameful. The program meant a new generation of people . An episode of The Crown Season 4 sheds a light on two estranged royal relatives. Though the shock and revulsion of The Crown’s Princess Margaret is fictional, her scathing words about the moral bankruptcy of the royal family ring nonetheless true. In The Crown, Princess Margaret is appalled to discover that the sisters are alive. In an interview with reporters after the story broke, another hospital administrator called Katherine “an elderly, frail old lady, one who finds it very difficult perhaps to understand this sort of thing [and] what’s going on in the world around her. It’s thought that the Queen Mother was in fact unaware of Nerissa and Katherine’s situation until 1982, when – upon learning where they were – she is said to have sent the sisters a check to pay for sweets. "They never received anything at Christmas either, not a sausage," said one nurse. This switched-at-birth fantasy hinges on little more than the fact that Queen Elizabeth and Katherine were born 10 weeks apart in 1926. The sisters were placed in the Royal Earlswood Hospital in Redhill, Surrey in 1941. “My family—the Bowes-Lyons—went from being minor Scottish aristocrats, to having a direct bloodline to the crown, resulting in the children of my brother [Katherine and Nerissa] and their first cousins [Idonea, Etheldreda, and Rosemary] paying a terrible price,” she explains. At the time the sisters were committed to the Royal Earlswood, Nerissa was 22 and Katherine was 15; Katherine and her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, were both born in 1926. There have been enough examples on the Windsor side alone to worry people. Palastmitarbeiter betreuten sie dort. Three further cousins were also patients there; Idonea Elizabeth Fane (1912–2002), Rosemary Jean Fane (1914–1972) and Etheldreda Flavia Fane (1922–1996). “Their professionally diagnosed idiocy and imbecility would make people question the integrity of the bloodline,” she says. Performance & security by Cloudflare. And it has everything to do with Her Majesty's cousins. Earlswood was not the luxurious lodging to which royal family members were accustomed. ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Queen Elizabeth, Katherine Bowes-Lyon, and the Royal Earlswood Mental Hospital in Redhill, Surrey. [5], Nerissa Bowes-Lyon starb 1986 und wurde in einem nur mit Plastiketiketten und einer Seriennummer markierten Armengrab auf dem Redhill Cemetery bestattet. Die weltweit populäre Serie brachte der Geschichte der Schwestern erneut verstärkte Aufmerksamkeit ein.[10]. Nerissa Bowes-Lyon and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, first cousins of Queen Elizabeth, were secretly incarcerated in the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Mental Defectives in 1941. [3], In der 1963 erschienenen Ausgabe des Adelslexikons Burke’s Peerage wurde angegeben, dass Nerissa und Katherine 1940 bzw. In 1376, Sir John married Joanna, a daughter of Robert II of Scotland. Katherine died in 2014 at age 87; she and her living cousins were eventually relocated to another facility in 1996. Kate continues her love affair with the British luxury fashion house. Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis). Ihr Vater, der zweite Sohn von Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14. You could Google them right now and learn about their story, they’re not a secret – not anymore. The Queen’s cousins, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, who each had a mental age of about three years old and never learned to talk in their lifetimes, were the third and fifth daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother’s brother, and his wife, Fenella Bowes-Lyon. It was criticized for sanitation problems and overcrowding, with nurses and relatives of patients recalling an understaffed ward of forty patients cared for by just two nurses. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Unofficial Royalty "Both Katherine and Nerissa were visited regularly by their family but neither could speak, and throughout their lives had the thinking age of four years old," the anonymous source alleged. Who were the Queen's 'hidden' cousins Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon ... There is reportedly no record of either woman receiving a family visit. Their exact diagnosis is not clear, because in the cruel and lazy medical parlance of the era, they were simply described as "imbeciles." In The Crown, Margaret’s therapist then relates that since the sisters’ condition appeared to come from their mother’s side, rather than their father’s (the Queen and Princess Margaret’s uncle), the argument about the ‘hereditary principle’ was in fact redundant. 12 Signs You’re Watching a Sam Levinson Project, Princess Eugenie Announces the Birth of Her Son, Ernest Brooksbank. A High Court justice has decided that the royal must accept the government’s decision to bar him from paying for his own police protection in the UK—but he still has an outstanding claim over the initial decision to strip his publicly-funded security. “It was so sad. On The Crown season 4, Princess Margaret drives to the hospital where Nerissa and Katherine live, sending in her friend Derek "Dazzle" Jennings to check on them. What people would say?”, In real life the headlines did get out—in 1987, when The Sun broke the news that two of Queen Elizabeth’s first cousins, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, were secretly placed in the Royal Earlswood mental hospital in 1941, when Katherine was 15 and Nerissa was 22. Simon Bowes-Lyon, cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, jailed for sexual ... - UPI Cloudflare Ray ID: 7d2fb7e5496030ee Of Nerissa and Katherine’s siblings, one died in infancy; another, Anne, died in 1980; and the third, Diana, died in 1986. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Timeline 1900-2002 | TheTimelineGeek Sat 30 Mar 2002 13.28 EST. Jone Johnson Lewis. Nerissa's medical records there, according to the documentary via the Daily Mail, stated that she made "unintelligible noises all the time," and "can say a few babyish words.". I can’t talk for others, but I didn’t know who they were at this point. In episode seven of the new series, ‘The Hereditary Principle’ Princess Margaret learns that two maternal cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who had been recorded as deceased, are in fact alive. Though little is conclusively known about the royal family’s knowledge or complicity in the trajectory of the Bowes-Lyons sisters’ lives, Morgan paints a damning picture of a family determined to hold onto power, whatever the cost. Get exclusive access to interviews with the Australia’s biggest artists and emerging talent. “I only ask because I am aware, through professional colleagues of… the sisters,” the therapist says. Berichten zufolge soll Queen Elizabeth von der Dokumentation „verletzt“ gewesen sein, da die Royal Family sich eigentlich doch um die beiden Schwestern gekümmert habe. Nerissa und Katherine Bowes-Lyon waren Töchter von John Herbert Bowes-Lyon und Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis. The Heartbreaking True Story of the Queen's Cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, All About The Crown: News, Spoilers, and Episode Recaps, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. [9] Unklar ist, inwiefern die Britische Königsfamilie von der Existenz der beiden Schwestern wusste oder gar an der Unterbringung der Schwestern im Pflegeheim beteiligt war. [10] Das amerikanische Magazin TIME berichtete, Elizabeth, Queen Mum, habe schon 1982 durch einen Brief der Leiterin der Schwesternhilfe des Krankenhaus erfahren, dass die Schwestern noch leben würden.