Princess Alexandra of Kent

HRH Princess Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel, the Honorable Lady Ogilvy, KG, GCVO, is a member of the British Royal Family.

Princess Alexandra was born on 25 December 1936 at 3 Belgrave Square, London. She is the only daughter and the second child of Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V of the United Kingdom, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia. Thus she is a cousin to both Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, her consort. Her brothers are the current Duke of Kent and Prince Michael of Kent. Her father was killed in an aeroplane crash near Caithness, Scotland on 25 August 1942.

Princess Alexandra spent most her childhood at her family's country house, Coppins, in Buckinghamshire. She lived with her grandmother, Her Majesty Queen Mary, the widow of George V, during World War II at Badminton. She served as bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousins, the then-Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947. Princess Alexandra has the distinction of being the first British princess of the blood royal to have attended an ordinary school, Heathfield School near Ascot.

On 24 April 1963, she married Angus James Bruce Ogilvy (born 14 September 1928), the second son of the 12th Earl of Airlie, at Westminster Abbey. Since Ogilvy declined the Queen's offer of an earldom upon marriage (although he remains in line to the earldom of Airlie, currently held by his elder brother), he is technically a commoner. Consequently, the children of the marriage do not have titles. Ogilvy received a knighthood in 1988 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997. Princess Alexandra and the Rt. Honourable Sir Angus Ogilvy have two children and four grandchildren, none of whom carry out royal duties:

• James Robert Bruce Ogilvy, born 29 February 1964, married 30 July 1988 Julia Rawlinson, and has issue: Flora Ogilvy (born 1994) and Alexander Ogilvy (born 1996).

• Marina Victoria Alexandra Ogilvy, Mrs. Mowatt, born 31 July 1966, married 2 February 1990 Paul Mowatt (married dissolved 1997), and has issue: Zenouska Mowatt (born 1990) and Christian Mowatt (born 1993).

Since the late 1950s, Princess Alexandra has carried out an extensive program of royal engagements in support of the Queen. She represented the Queen when Nigeria gained its independence from Great Britain on 1 October 1960. The princess is chancellor of the University of Lancaster and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Royal College of Physicians. She receives £225,000 per year from the Civil List to cover the cost of official expenses; although like the other members of the Royal Family (except the Duke of Edinburgh) the Queen repays this amount to the Treasury. Her personal standard flies over homes in Gloucestershire and her London apartments in St James's Palace.

Princess Alexandra was created Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1960, and made a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 2003.

Originally styled HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent, her precise style has varied over the years. She was styled HRH Princess Alexandra, Mrs. Angus Ogilvy from 1963 to 1989. From 1989 to 1997, she was styled HRH Princess Alexandra, the Lady Ogilvy. Since her husband's appointment to the Privy Council in 1997, she has been styled HRH Princess Alexandra, The Honorable Lady Ogilvy.