Tragic truth behind the Queen’s ‘hidden’ cousins whose deaths were shrouded in mystery
Nearly 40 years ago, the royal family was rocked by a shocking scandal involving the Queen's first cousins, sparking public outcry and accusations of a horrifying cover-up.
Back in 2020, Netflix released season four of The Crown and while it explored the beginnings of Charles and Diana's marriage and the political backdrop of Britain's first female prime minister, the series also brought renewed attention to a painful part of the Windsor family history - the tragic story of Queen Elizabeth's first cousins, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon.
The daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, the Queen's uncle, and his wife, Fenella Bowes-Lyon, the public had no idea the women even existed until a shocking investigation by The Sun newspaper was published in 1987.
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Nerissa and Katherine were both born with severe learning difficulties meaning never learned to talk and had the estimated mental age of a three-year-old. But, in the years following the death of their father in 1930, the girls - aged 15 and 22 at the time - were sent to mental health hospital Royal Earlswood in Redhill, London.
The state-funded facility was not the typical place you'd expect a member of the royal family to reside in, and it faced shocking accusations of severe understaffing, overcrowding and poor sanitation which would later see it closed down for good.
But in 1963, tragic news was released by the Bowes-Lyon family announcing Katherine and Nerissa had sadly passed away in 1961 and 1940, respectively.
The news was published in Burke’s Peerage at the time, a guidebook for the British Aristocracy.
The problem was, it wasn't true.
A shocking royal 'cover-up'
Nerissa actually died in 1986 just one year before the scandal was made public, while her sister Katherine only passed away in 2014.
So, when a journalist at The Sun revealed that the sisters had been very much alive this whole time and were in fact hidden away in an institution, the public outrage was huge and threatened to seriously taint the Windsor family name.
Meanwhile, Harold Brooks-Baker, an editor at Burke’s Peerage, was stunned to learn of the alleged cover-up, having taken the royals at their word when they announced the deaths.
“It is not normal to doubt the word of members of the royal family,” he said.
The public were further outraged when they learned that Nerissa had been given a 'pauper's grave' donning just a serial number, and a ceremony only attended by staffers at the hospital. A public campaign later saw a proper gravestone added and Katherine inundated with gifts.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said the Queen was aware of the report but declined to comment, simply saying it was 'an issue for the Bowes-Lyon family'.
Lady Elizabeth Anson, the niece of Nerissa and Katherine, denied the claims of a cover-up, saying her grandmother was 'a very vague person [who] often did not fill out forms completely that Burke’s Peerage sent her'.
But others disputed this, claiming such a large oversight like that wouldn't have slipped through the cracks.
How much did the rest of the royal family really know?
As for the wider royal family, details are a bit murky regarding how much they knew of the sisters, but it's claimed that the Queen Mother found out about them in 1982, having believed - like everyone else - that they were dead beforehand.
She reportedly sent a cheque which was used to purchase sweets and toys for the women, but never visited. In fact, records show the sisters never had any family visitors and were never sent birthday or Christmas gifts.
Despite this, she faced heavy backlash for seemingly never correcting the public record about the sisters, given the fact she is said to have learned the truth five years before the scandal broke.
But alleged financial records show that someone within the royal family did know of their existence all along, as they were said to have been sending over £125 yearly to cover the sisters' care at the facility.
Nerissa and Katherine 'never forgot' their royal ties
While the royal family had seemingly forgotten about them, Nerissa and Katherine apparently never forgot their royal heritage.
According to a 2011 Channel 4 doc called The Queen’s Hidden Cousins, staffers at the hospital claimed that whenever members of the royal family would appear on the TV, the sisters - though they couldn't speak - would stand up, salute and even curtsy.
What happened to Katherine after Nerissa died?
Katherine continued to reside in Earlswood hospital after her sister's death until its closure in 1997 amid abuse allegations.
She was then moved to another facility in Surrey and lived out the rest of her days there until she passed away aged 87 in 2014.
Dot Penfold, a former ward sister at Earlswood, later spoke of the sisters in the Channel 4 doc, claiming it upset her that they had gone years on end with no visitors.
"The impression I had was that they’d been forgotten," she said.
Topics: Royal Family, The Queen, The Crown
Chloe Jackson