Newly-Uncovered Details About Queen Elizabeth's 'Banished' Cousins

Major scandals have rocked the British royal family for centuries. Time normally erases public knowledge about past incidents, but occasionally old drama reemerges. Netflix’s The Crown is notorious for reminding its audience about Buckingham Palace's dirty laundry. Notably, the show reintroduced the public to Queen Elizabeth's cousins Katherine and Nerissa, who vanished from public life for less than savory reasons.

A royal secret

When Princess Margaret visits a therapist in an episode of The Crown, her counselor isn’t surprised that the royal has appeared in her office. She alludes to a pair of sisters who were associated with Margaret. The Princess is shocked, as the therapist had just revealed a dark family secret that even Margaret didn't know about!

Discovering the lies

In the show, Margaret and her older sister Elizabeth find that their family lied about their cousins Katherine and Nerissa being dead. Instead, they were sent to Royal Earlswood Hospital — a state-funded mental institution. This would be a shocking discovery even if they weren't royalty! But could such a deception have happened in real life?

A taboo subject

Well, some members of the royal family were a little more clued in. Apparently, it wasn't a secret so much as a taboo subject for some of the royal family. All they knew was that Katherine and Nerissa were in the sanatorium once known as “The Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles.” Nice name. Of course, that doesn't sound like a place fit for royalty — or for anyone, for that matter.

Committed women

They weren’t the only ones with royal blood at Royal Earlswood Hospital. The Queen Mother's cousins, Rosemary, Etheldreda, and Ideona, were committed to the facility on the same day as the others. They were all so closely connected — genetically and socially — to the royal family, but reaped none of the benefits.

Related to royalty

Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon were Fenella and John Herbert Bowes-Lyon’s third and fifth daughters who were born in 1926 and 1919, respectively. John was one of the Queen Mother’s older brothers. Even before the Queen Mother married into royalty, her family boasted high social standing.

Inherited health issues

But just because the Bowes-Lyons were wealthy didn't mean everything was perfect. As it turns out, the family was besotted with health issues. It's alleged that Katherine and Nerissa both had mental ages of about three and weren’t verbal. Their father died in 1930, leaving Fenella to provide full-time care for the girls alone.

New home at Royal Earlswood

Soon after his death, Fenella resorted to sending her daughters to Redhill, outside of Surrey. In 1941 they were shipped to the Royal Earlswood Hospital — Nerissa was 22 and Katherine was 15. Though it was a step-up from the horrible public workhouses, where people with mental disabilities would normally be sent, the hospital still wasn't paradise.

A quiet and lonely life

First of all, the facility wasn’t known for its cleanliness. Patients were overcrowded, and the care team was often understaffed. It also didn't help that Katherine and Nerissa were isolated from their family, but that may not have been the fault of the institution. You see, for years the royals lived a quiet and lonely life. But in 1987, the public finally learned about their existence.

"A matter for the Bowes-Lyon family"

This was because Nerissa passed away that year and was buried in a grave that was only marked with her serial number and plastic name tag. “We have no comment about it at all,” Buckingham Palace said. “It is a matter for the Bowes-Lyon family.” Despite having a member of the Bowes-Lyon family as their former Queen consort, the Palace wanted nothing to do with the sisters.

What really happened?

Katherine outlived her sister, dying in 2014 at the age of 87. The rest of the royal family never visited any of their relations in the institution, though there are some sources who claim Fenella did visit her daughters until she died in 1966. Of course, it is hard to confirm or deny that possibility.

We may never know

There aren’t any official records of these visits, and the family even secretly declared Nerissa and Katherine dead in the mid-1900s. According to some sources, the royals were afraid that people would reject them for having "mad blood." Though their family seemingly refused to acknowledge them, the women seemed to recall their royal roots.

Born at the wrong time

According to one of their former nurses, If Katherine and Nerissa saw the royal family on TV, they would salute or curtsy to them. The poor girls existed at a time when mental disabilities threatened a family’s reputation — influenced by eugenics, an ethnically biased philosophy that sought to control which humans were permitted to reproduce.

"Suspect and wrong"

“The belief was if you had a child with a learning disability, there was something in your family that was suspect and wrong,” Jan Walmsley, an Open University professor and expert in the history of learning disabilities, said. However, John and Fenella didn't give up on all their children. One ended up in a drastically different place.

Doing it for Anne

The Bowes-Lyons had one daughter, Anne — also the Queen Mother's first cousin — who would become a princess of Denmark. Fenella was likely concerned with Anne’s prospects if her suitors learned about her other sisters. This may be why Fenella made the shocking decision to hide them away from the public.

The first asylum

The sisters lived in England’s first asylum for the mentally challenged. When Nerissa was admitted she was described as, “Very affectionate … can say a few babyish words,” by one of the hospital’s practitioners. It was almost hard to believe that she was so closely tied to the royal family. The staff did, understandably, have questions about the duo.

They were forgotten

Though the women were generally liked among the staff and seemed generally harmless, their care team noticed that they never had visitors. They were practically abandoned, by all accounts. “I never saw anybody come,” Dot Penfold, another person in the ward, said. “The impression I had was that they’d been forgotten.” Could that be true?

Funds over friendship

Though the Queen Mother stated that she learned about the sisters' fates in 1982, someone in the royal family definitely knew about them. After all, they were sending the two payments of 125 pounds yearly. Once she knew they were actually alive, the Queen Mother did what any loving family member would do: sent them another check...

Legally deceased

The upside to this chilly gesture? With the money, Nerissa and Katherine were able to purchase candy and toys. But Elizabeth herself never appeared, even after learning about their tough lives. She also didn’t correct the girls’ public records, so to the rest of the world, it was as if Nerissa and Katherine hadn't existed for years.

Abuse allegations

In the '70s and '80s, the British policy of Care in the Community pushed for those with mental disabilities to be cared for at home, instead of in institutions, which were often rife with disease and abuse. Still, the sisters — despite having the most prominent family members in the country — remained at Royal Earlswood for the majority of their lives. And sure enough, the Royal Earlswood closed in 1997 after former staff members came forward with abuse allegations.

Generations of cover-ups

We’re not sure where Katherine was living between the institution’s closing in ’97 and her death in 2014, but we do know that Queen Elizabeth II wasn't part of the planning process once the palace received news about the asylum’s closing. While the royal family may appear callous in this situation, the truth is that nobility has a historical connection to strange and often debilitating illnesses that they try to cover up.

Baby John

For instance, when the Windsors welcomed their 5th child, Prince John, in 1905, not many expected that a few years later he would all but vanish. See, when John was born in 1905, his birth was heralded by the royals and all of Britain. His full name was John Charles Francis, and according to the royal record, he was a "large and handsome" baby. That wouldn't be all he was, though.

A history of unlucky Johns

The sweet summer child was baptized in August of that year, at the Church of St Mary Magdalene at Sandringham, an estate where he would spend much of his childhood. He was informally known as "Johnnie" due to the family's history of unlucky associations with the name John.

Lala and Johnnie

At first, John had a normal childhood, playing happily with his siblings Henry, Edward, Albert, Mary, and George. Their parents were busy being prominent members of the royal family, so the kids were most often supervised by their nanny, Charlotte "Lala" Bill. John was particularly close with her.

So far, so good

John's father, George, was a disciplinarian, but was also affectionate towards his kids. His mother encouraged all the children to confide in her. Through this healthy relationship with their parents, the youngsters turned out to be nice and polite people.

Breaking the mold

John, in particular, was singled out as being uniquely "charming and amusing" by his great-aunt, the Dowager Empress of Russia. He made "quaint," unfiltered remarks that sent everyone in the room into chuckles — early signs of a personality that differed from the rest.

Unique qualities

Those differences came into a clearer focus when John was four years old. His father told President Theodore Roosevelt "all [his] children [were] obedient, except John," probably because John was the child who was least disciplined. George doted on him more than the others.

Epilepsy diagnosis

The reasons behind this special treatment soon became clear. John began to show possible signs of autism, and he had his first epileptic seizure in late 1909. He was too ill to attend his parents' coronation in 1911. George's kindness for the boy increased with his level of required care.

Little-researched condition

John's health continued to worsen over the next few years. There was a stigma against epilepsy at the time, since treatment didn't really exist, but the family hoped it would go away on its own, like the Duke of Albany's condition had.

Further conflict

In addition, John started to display repetitive behaviors. Not understanding that he needed to behave properly and follow the strict royal rules for decorum, he became somewhat disobedient and rebellious, leading him into trouble.

Brotherly bond broken

As he reached the age of 11, John's public appearances and involvement in the family's public activities decreased. Another blow was dealt when his closest sibling, his brother George, went away to preparatory school. John's health prevented him from also attending.

Rumors flew

Tidbits about the young prince leaked out, and for many years, the public believed John had been shut away, scorned, and hidden because he was different. The press was merciless, running with every rumor they heard about the beleaguered boy.

Separated from family

His seizures, instead of improving, worsened and seriously impeded his daily life. In 1916, not knowing what to do, the family set up a peaceful residence for him on the neighboring property of Wood Farm.

Tragic decline

Nurse Lala was stationed there to care for John full-time, but things were tough. Though his mother arranged for local children to come play with him and his siblings visited when he felt well, the separation from his family didn't help. Formerly "mascot of the family," his energy was lagging.

A breaking point

In January 1919, John's seizures hit a breaking point. He passed away in his sleep after one especially bad episode. The family was heartbroken, but Queen Mary wrote that they were relieved that he'd gone peacefully and would no longer suffer. He was only thirteen.

A private ceremony

John's funeral was a humble private affair, though every single one of the Sandringham estate staff attended. They brought heaps of flowers to place on the small grave at St. Mary Magdalene, the same church where he was baptized.

Family coldness

Though it's impossible to know how the family actually felt about him, it's rumored that not everyone was sad about John's passing. His older brother Edward VIII, who was 11 years older than John and hadn't known him well at all, was seemingly nonplussed by the death. He said as much in a letter to his mistress at the time.

Clinical detachment

“No one would be more cut up if any of my other 3 brothers were to die than I should be," he wrote, "but this poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else and was only a brother in the flesh and nothing else.”

Missed by others

This unfavorable letter tainted the public opinion of John's circumstances for decades. People believed the whole family was as cold as Edward, but it simply wasn't true. Even Lala grieved his loss. She kept a picture of him above her fireplace, alongside a letter he'd written, reading, "Nanny, I love you."

In his memory

Queen Mary gave many of John's books to his friend and Wood Farm companion, Winifred Thomas, with personal inscriptions in his honor. Edward later apologized to his mother for his harsh words, saying he felt like "a cold hearted and unsympathetic swine."

Tough call

Though John's seclusion seems strange in retrospect, the truth is that epilepsy wasn't well understood at the time. The family tried to do what would be best for John. Still, Edward always regretted his harsh words.