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Royal Order of Victoria and Albert

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Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
The four grades of the Order
Awarded by
Queen Victoria
TypeRoyal Family Order
CountryUnited Kingdom
RibbonWhite
EligibilityFemale members of the British royal family and female courtiers
CriteriaAt Her Majesty's pleasure
StatusDefunct; not awarded since the death of Queen Victoria
Post-nominalsVA

Ribbon of the Order


Queen Victoria by Bassano

Portrait of Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee, wearing the Sovereign's badge of the Order

Victoria, Princess Royal

The German Empress Victoria wearing the Order, along with the Prussian Order of Louise (also an order only for women)

The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert is a British Royal Family Order instituted on 10 February 1862[1] by Queen Victoria, and enlarged on 10 October 1864, 15 November 1865, and 15 March 1880. No award has been made since the death of Queen Victoria.

The order had four classes and was only granted to female members of the British royal family and female courtiers. For the first three classes, the badge consisted of a medallion of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, differing in the width and jewelling of the border as the classes descend, whilst the fourth substitutes a jewelled cipher. All four were surmounted by a crown, which was attached to a bow of white silk moiré ribbon. The honour conferred no rank or title upon the recipient, but recipients were entitled to use the post-nominal letters "VA".

The last holder of the Order, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, died in 1981.

Recipients[]

  • 1863 Alexandra, Princess of Wales
  • Elizabeth Biddulph, Baroness Biddulph (Woman of the Bedchamber)[2]
  • The Countess of Mount Edgcumbe[clarification needed] (Lady of the Bedchamber)[3]
  • Jane Spencer, Baroness Churchill (Lady of the Bedchamber)[4]
  • 1889: Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava[5]
  • Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton[6]

a full list of recipients is published on pages 37–41 of Royal Service Volume 2[7]

Sources[]

  • Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
  • British Imperial Calendar, 1900, 1902
  • The Times

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ British Imperial Calendar, 1900
  2. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2123: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
  7. ↑ Risk, James; Pownall, Henry; Stanley, David; Tamplin, John (2001). Royal Service (Volume II). Lingfield, Surrey: Third Millennium.
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