The Daily Telegraph - 22.08.2019

Nanny Barbara Barnes with Prince William in 1983

Princess Elizabeth (c) and Princess Margaret with governess Marion Crawford

Princess Mary and Prince Henry of York with their nurse, Charlotte ‘Lala’ Bill, in 1902

Nanny Maria Borrallo with the Cambridges

Nanny Helen Lightbody with Prince Charles and Princess Anne in 1954

Nanny Mabel Anderson

with Prince Charles in 1950

particular parenting minefield. The

couple have already come under fire

for various choices, though allegations

that they have already got through a

succession of nannies are said to be

unfounded. Photographs published in

the Sun this week revealed that their

new British nanny – who is now with

them full-time and is likely to be seen

on their autumn tour – accompanied

them on holiday to France.

“You get the impression the

Sussexes are a very modern couple and

she has things she wants to do,” says

Penny Junor, the royal biographer.

“Meghan is going to want to get out

there, and for that she will need

nannies. She was at Wimbledon very

early on. Most mothers would still be

stealing moments of sleep at that stage.

“It seems as though Kate is also a

pretty hands-on mother. She’s more

like a normal working mum. She uses

her parents for childcare, just as lots of

parents do. That may not be possible

with Meghan and Harry, as [Doria]

will be in Los Angeles.”

William and Harry were looked

after by a string of nannies when

growing up, the last of whom, Tiggy

Legge-Bourke, was a special guest at

both their weddings. Legge-Bourke

was an unconventional choice, hired

by Prince Charles in 1993 after his

separation from Diana, Princess of

Wales, when he needed someone

to help care for his sons, who by

that time were too old for a nanny.

Rather than ruling a royal nursery,

the youthful Tiggy acted as a kind of

older sister and friend to the princes,

accompanying them on outings

with their father.

Diana was so threatened by

her that she wrote a letter to

her butler, Paul Burrell – later

shown at the inquest into

her death – alleging Prince

Charles was planning to

have her killed so he could

“marry Tiggy”. “My

husband is planning ‘an

accident’ in my car... in

order to make the path

clear for him to marry

Tiggy,” she wrote.

She is said to have

sacked one of her

sons’ earlier nannies,

Barbara Barnes,

because she was jealous

of the bond she had

formed with William.

“There was a side of Diana

that was rather jealous

of the nannies and the

F

rom superintendent of the

nursery to part-time big sister,

the transformation of the

royal nanny is a fascinating one.

As with so many aspects of royal

protocol, the role has evolved with

each generation – from Queen

Victoria’s era, when nursemaids

and governesses were expected to

exercise complete authority in the

nursery and devote their entire

lives to their charges, to the newest

generation of royal parents, who

have a far more hands-on approach

to their children, using nannies only

to fill in the gaps.

In many ways, the Royal family’s

childcare choices are a good marker

of the times – Prince William,

for example, has always taken a

thoroughly modern approach with

his own brood compared with his

parents, who gave their sons a very

formal, old-fashioned upbringing.

Indeed, the Cambridges sent

ripples through society circles

when they advertised for a general

housekeeper, not a nanny, after the

birth of Prince George (though they

have since employed Norland nanny

Maria Borrallo full-time).

Now it is the Duke and Duchess of

Sussex’s turn to navigate through this

As the Sussexes enlist help for baby Archie, Eleanor Steafel traces the history of the women who raised generations of royal children

Continued on page 20

relationships that they subsequently

struck up with the children,” said

Katie Nicholl, the journalist and royal

biographer, in a documentary last

year.

Diana’s upbringing was of the

traditional aristocratic school of

thought, with her early years

spent in the nursery wing at

Park House on the Sandringham

Estate. This was the era when

children spent every waking

moment with their nanny.

When it came to her

own boys, Diana

didn’t stray far from

the old formula.

“She was very

loving and there

were lots of hugs,

but the children

lived in the

nursery wing,

which was behind

a door, and had

their meals with the

nanny,” says Junor.

Prince Charles’s

childhood had been

much the same,

with a string of

governesses, one

of whom remained

A very modern

couple: the Duke

and Duchess of

Sussex with

Archie

FAMILY

FEATURES

PA; BETTMANN ARCHIVE; GETTY; REX; MARY EVANS

Nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke

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dear to all four of the Queen’s

children. Mabel Anderson was once

referred to as “the most influential

woman in Prince Charles’s life”;

he, meanwhile, described her as “a

haven of security, the great haven”.

She was also close to Princess Anne,

for whom she temporarily came out

of “retirement” to help raise her son,

Peter Phillips. Miss Anderson was

said to have been the first nanny to

have wholemeal bread on the Royal

children’s breakfast table. She finally

retired in 1981, after 32 years’ service.

Some royal nannies, however,

have been less highly favoured. Miss

Helen Lightbody, a stern Scottish

governess, was reputedly dismissed

in 1956 because she disagreed with

the Queen over the suitability of

one particular pudding for the

eight-year-old royal stomach.

It’s rather a recurring theme, the

revolving door for palace nannies – a

whole host have been dismissed for

allegedly overstepping the mark.

The Queen’s own governess, the

once beloved “Crawfie” (Marion

Crawford), went out of favour

when she began writing about

the princesses (the then Princess

The secrets of the ROYAL nannies

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The Daily Telegraph Thursday 22 August 2019 *** 19

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