Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk (born Lady Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha Duff; 3 April 1893 – 14 December 1945) was a granddaughter of Edward VII. Maud and her elder sister, Alexandra, had the distinction of being the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign officially granted both the title of Princess and the style of Highness.
Although Princess Maud did not otherwise carry out royal engagements, because of her position in the Commonwealth's order of succession she served as a Counsellor of State between 1942 and 1945.
Contents
Early life
Maud was born on 3 April 1893 at East Sheen Lodge, Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, the daughter of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, and Princess Louise of Wales. Her father had been elevated from Earl to Duke of Fife following his marriage to Princess Louise, who was the third child and eldest daughter of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. She was named after her aunt, the future Queen Maud of Norway.
Maud was christened on 22 June in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. She received the names Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha. Her godparents were Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra); the Empress Frederick of Germany (for whom Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne stood proxy); Princess Maud of Wales; Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (later Queen Mary); Prince George, Duke of York (later George V); and Horace Farquhar, 1st Earl Farquhar.
Maud was educated at home under the supervision of her mother, the Duchess of Fife. Like her mother and sister, Maud was an enthusiastic angler, and held record for having caught the largest fish at the River Dee. She also pursued other hobbies such as photography, painting and drawing.
Maud and her sister were unique in sharing descent from both King William IV (through his mistress, Dorothea Jordan), and William IV's niece, Queen Victoria, who succeeded him because he left no legitimate issue.
Princess
In 1900, Queen Victoria granted Maud's father a second dukedom of Fife in the peerage of the United Kingdom with a special remainder providing for the succession of the duke's daughters and their male-line descendants to the title, in default of a male heir. Maud became second in line to the dukedom, after her elder sister Alexandra, and her descendants would eventually succeed to the peerage.
As a cognatic great-granddaughter of a British monarch (Queen Victoria), Maud was not entitled to the title of a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland nor to the attribute Royal Highness. Instead she was styled Lady Maud Duff, as the daughter of a duke. She was fifth in the line of succession to the British throne at the time of her birth.
On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII (on his birthday) gave Maud's mother the title of Princess Royal. He further ordered Garter King of Arms to gazette Maud and her sister with the style and attribute of Highness and the style of Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names, with precedence immediately after all members of the British royal family bearing the style of Royal Highness.
She took part in the carriage procession for members of the royal family when she attended the state funeral of Edward VII in 1910 (she was styled in the London Gazette as "Her Highness Princess Maud" and her sister "Her Highness Princess Alexandra", both without the territorial designation "of Fife"). She attended the coronation of her uncle, George V, on 22 June 1911 with the royal family, styled as "Her Highness Princess Maud" (again without territorial designation).
In December 1911, Princess Maud was involved in the wreck of the P&O liner SS Delhi off Cape Spartel while travelling to Egypt with her parents and sister. During the evacuation of the ship, the boat carrying the royal party capsized, and Maud had to be carried ashore to safety. Although all survived the wreck, her father, Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, later developed pleurisy attributed to the ordeal and died in Egypt on 29 January 1912.
In 1913, Maud was a bridesmaid at her sister Princess Alexandra's wedding to Prince Arthur of Connaught. Until her own marriage, she acted as a constant companion to her mother, the Princess Royal, often accompanying her to public events and occasionally accompanying her grandmother, Dowager Queen Alexandra.
Marriage
On 13 November 1923, Maud married Charles, Lord Carnegie (23 September 1893 – 16 February 1992) at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London. Lord Carnegie was the eldest son of Charles Noel Carnegie, 10th Earl of Southesk and inherited the title of Earl of Southesk on his father's death on 10 November 1941.
Maud and her husband operated a model farm from Elsick House, in Kincardineshire, Scotland. They had one child, James (23 September 1929 – 22 June 2015).
Girl Guides
Maud was a devoted supporter of the Girl Guides movement. She was a County Commissioner in Angus and Aberdeenshire and a member of the executive committee in Scotland. She was a recipient of the Silver Fish Award, Girl Guiding's highest adult honour, in 1937.
Later life, illness and death
Maud consistently appeared at the Court of St. James's among the royal family, although she did not undertake official or public duties. During George VI's absence in Africa in 1943, she served as a Counsellor of State. At the time of her death in 1945, she was thirteenth in line to the British throne and heir presumptive to the dukedom of Fife, since her sister's only son Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, had died in 1943. Maud's only son James, Lord Carnegie, succeeded his aunt as 3rd Duke of Fife in 1959. Upon his father's death, James succeeded to his titles in 1992. Her last public engagement was to act as president for the concert held in aid for the South London Hospital in November 1945.
Maud died at a London nursing home on 14 December 1945 after a bout of acute bronchitis. Her will was sealed in Llandudno in 1946. Her estate was valued at £44,008 (or £1.2 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation).