Elizabeth II’s mentally ill cousins: How the royals hid the sisters in a mental hospital for life

1987 in the royal family was a year of turmoil and scandal. First, the audience learned about Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ unhappy marriage, then their infidelities to each other, and then discussed whether Harry was Charles’ son.

Soon a new scandal: journalists discover that Elizabeth II has two cousins ​​that no one has ever seen. This is because they have spent most of their lives in a psychiatric hospital.

They were Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who, by the way, had long been on the lists of the dead, even though both were more alive than all the living.

Nerissa and Catherine were born into the family of Sir John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, one of the older brothers of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, known as the Queen Mother.

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John and his wife Fenella had five children. The eldest Patricia died in infancy, a few months after her death, the second daughter Anna was born, after some time, in 1919, the third daughter was born, whose name was Nerissa. Doctors immediately recognized the youngest child of the spouses as mentally disabled, and therefore the young parents did not even begin to make the traditional announcement in The Times newspaper about the replenishment of the family. In 1923, Fenella gave birth again. And one more girl: fortunately, Diana turned out to be completely healthy. Yet three years later, restocking again: the newborn, who was named Katherine, was also diagnosed with dementia.

In February 1930, John died suddenly and Fenella was left alone with four children, two of them seriously ill. Nerissa and Katherine grew up, and for many years the mother took care of the girls alone, despite the fact that their development remained at the level of five years. They did not speak, but mumbled or uttered something inarticulate, moreover, both had problems with walking and coordination in space, because of which they had to be accompanied everywhere.

The family was frankly worried that because of Nerissa and Catherine, Fenella could not marry the beautiful and educated Anna and Diana. Like, suitors will be afraid to enter into kinship with a family where there are mentally retarded. And then the woman was advised to send the sick sisters to a psychiatric clinic. Fenella’s maternal grandfather promised to cover all expenses.

In 1941, 22-year-old Nerissa and 15-year-old Katherine met at Earlswood Nursing Home in Surrey. By the way, the girls’ maternal cousins ​​were also sent to the clinic – 29-year-old Idoneya, 27-year-old Rosemary and 19-year-old Ethelreda.

At first, Nerissa and Katherine were visited by their closest relatives. Even their sister Anna came, who perfectly arranged her personal life and became a Danish princess. But by the 1960s, everyone had forgotten about the girls, including their own mother, and their names were on death lists.

In 1966, Fenella died and her family’s funding for sisters with mental illness ceased. Only the hospital staff know how they survived the remaining years.

Nerissa died in 1986 at the age of 66. Only the doctors of the clinic attended his funeral and his relatives preferred to pretend that they were not at all aware of what had happened. The woman was buried not in the family crypt, but directly in the hospital cemetery. Above his grave was a plastic plaque with a serial number.

Of course, when this story became public, the public wondered how the Queen Mother could allow her relative to live life like this and be buried without honours. Elizabeth II also understood this: the subjects saw hypocrisy in the fact that the queen was engaged in charitable works in various fields, but was ashamed of her relationship with mentally ill sisters. The hype in the press forced the royal family to erect a memorial at Nerissa’s grave.

In March 2014, it became known about the death of the second sister – Katherine Bowes-Lyon. She died aged 87 at a clinic in Surrey, where she was transferred after Earlswood closed. Who accompanied her on her last trip is unknown.

In 2011, a documentary film about the cousins ​​of Elizabeth II was released called The Queen’s Hidden Cousins. Staff at the clinic where Nerissa and Katherine lived accused the royal family of cold-blooded indifference. “The sisters were like vegetables and no one remembered them. They didn’t even have normal personal clothes. They used what they had been given,” says one of the nurses. Buckingham Palace did not respond to the allegations.

Historians agree that Nerissa and Katherine could have been born sick as a result of incest. It is believed that the sisters’ grandfather, Lord Clinton, and his wife are to blame for everything, who passed on the bad genes to the girls.

See also: You Definitely Didn’t See Princess Diana Like This: Because Of Her Hooligan Antics, Elizabeth II Was Furious

Photo: Legion Media, Social Media