Princess Augusta of Cambridge
(1797-1889)
8 October 1860

Volume 2, page 30, sitting number 1418. 

'On Saturday died at the ripe age of 92 her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, the very last survivor of the family of King George III of the generation prior to her Majesty. Her Royal Highness was by birth the Princess Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa, youngest daughter of the Langrave Frederick of Hesse Cassel, and was born on the 25th July, 1797. She was married at Cassel on 7th May, 1818, to His Royal Highness Adolphus Frederick, late Duke of Cambridge, the youngest son of George III. The marriage of the Duke and Duchess was solemnised according to the Anglican rite in London about a month after the ceremony at Cassel. The late Duchess of Cambridge never took any part in public life, save when the late duke was Viceroy of Hanover, then an appenage to the British Crown. The married life of the Duchess lasted thirty-two years, and three children were born of the Union, one son, H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, and two daughters. The elder of the two daughters is the Princess Augusta Caroline Charlotte Elizabeth Sophia Louise, who was born in July, 1822, and who has been since 1843 the wife of the Reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by whom she has an only son, the Hereditary Grand Duke, George Adolphus Frederick, born in 1848, and married to the eldest daughter of Leopold, Duke of Anhalt. The younger daughter is the Princess Mary Adelaide, wife of the Duke of Teck, who was born in August, 1833, and who has three sons and a daughter. The Duke of Cambridge was absent in Ireland on duty at the time of the death of the Duchess. When in London it was the invariable custom of his Royal Highness, himself, by the way, in his seventy-first year, to call each day at St James's-place, and spend some time with his venerable parent' (Nottingham Evening Post, 8 April 1889). 

'The death of the aged Duchess of Cambridge deprives the Queen of one her Majesty's nearest relations, and one of her dearest friends. [...] For some time past the aged Princess was in a feeble state of health, but she rallied sufficiently to be able to give her usual dinner party a fortnight ago, in celebration of her son's birthday. Her Royal Highness had outlived most of her early contemporaries, but up to the last she took the greatest interest in modern art in various forms' (Belfast News-Letter, 8 April 1889).