Royal Scandal – Did Princess Louise have an illegitimate son?

As the middle child of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise is known for her talented art skills and rebellious nature. However, many of her royal archives have been locked away and banned from public view. Join me as I delve into Louise’s life between 1866-1867 to try and answer the question “Did Princess Louise have an illegitimate son?”

It all started in March 1866, when Lieutenant Walter George Stirling was hired as the tutor and cared of Princess Louise’s closest brother, Prince Leopold. Rarely leaving the Prince’s side, Stirling soon became a value member of the royal household and was invited to attend various family outings, parties and dinners. Subsequently, Louise spent much of her time in his presence, including when she frequently visited her sickly brother.

Despite Leopold thriving in his care, Queen Victoria abruptly dismissed Stirling just four months late. With little to no explanation, other than Leopold required someone that was used to working with “persons of delicate health”; a suspicious excuse considering his replacement was far from kind towards the Prince.

Rumours quickly spread throughout the Royal Household and a year later more rumours began, saying that Stirling had actually got Louise pregnant.

While researching about the Princess, Louise’s biographer, Lucinda Hawksley was left confused to be told that all of Louise’s private documents had been locked away and banned from the public. Despite no hardcore evidence, Lucinda noted how Louise’s fashion taste changed dramatically during 1866. Usually, she wore plain, tight dresses; but in 1866, Louise’s style became much more decorated with frills, pleats and padding, as well as often being seen using muffs and shawls in photographs, which tend to be covering her abdomen. During autumn 1866, Victoria herself noted in her diary that Louise, at this date, did not require servants to help her dress, suggesting that she she was trying to hide a secret.

Personally, I believe that the dates of photos from this period were changed to hide an ‘obvious’ change in Louise’s style.

More evidence of a possible pregnancy is that Louise wasn’t her usual self. She wrote to a friend that she was feeling ‘low and sad’. The letter went on: ‘[I] sit in my room and cry. I cannot write and tell you why, there are so many things ought not to be as they are . . . I am expected to agree with them and yet I cannot when I know a thing to be wrong.’ It’s also notable that Louise made few public appearances in the winter of 1866 — and that, when she did, she rarely left her carriage.

Soon before the suspected birth, Queen Victoria’s gynaecologist, Sir Charles Locock, moved into grace-and-favour apartments at St James’s Palace. Shortly after this, Charles’ wife died unexpectedly. As custom to the time, the family would have been expected to enter a year long state of mourning; however, six weeks after his mothers birth, Fredrick Locock married his fiancé, Mary Blackshaw. Just four months later, near the end of 1866, they adopted a baby, named Henry Locock. Within a couple of weeks of the adoption, Sir Charles received a visit from a Lady Stirling — the mother of Lieutenant Walter Stirling, the suspected father. They also suddenly started to receive a large, unexplained allowance, suggesting royal involvement.

In February 1867, Louise attended the Opening of Parliament in a white satin dress, the same style as she had worn prior to 1866. The same month, Louise’s older brother, Prince Albert Edward and his wife Alexandra went against Queen Victoria’s wishes and named their first daughter Louise, possibly as a way to consolidate the princess after giving up her own child. A few months later, Louise’s brother, Prince Arthur, included a cryptic line in a letter to her suggesting he’d mentioned a taboo subject. ‘As to the great secret,’ he wrote, ‘I did not know that I could not mention it to you: of course, I would not speak of it to anybody else.’

According to the Lococks, Louise visited Henry all through his childhood, until he turned 16. As Lucinda Hawksley discovered, Princess Louise was known to love spending time at her country home of Dornden in Kent, which was coincidentally right next door to a house owned by Charles Locock. After Henry grew up, he married and had six children, each believing that Louise was his mother – although this could just be stories. Sadly, Henry died young in 1907 after falling out of a train in Canada, while on a suspected trip to find Louise, who had previously lived in Canada. After his death, £60,000 had mysteriously been set up for his six children but no evidence on its origin has been discovered.

Four years later, on 21st March 1871, Louise married John Campbell. Upon their engagement, Queen Victoria had written to John, telling him that Louise was “barren”, suggesting something went wrong during her labour with Henry, which could have led to Louise becoming permanently infertile. Unfortunately the Queen war right and the couple never went on to have a family of their own.

While we will never know what happened without hardcore evidence, the royal family were definitely hiding something during this time period. Do you think Louise had a secret child? Let me know in the comments section below, along with any questions you have, or yo can send them to me on Instagram and I will do my best to help. You can support my research by visiting and donating to my Ko-fi page. Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to my website for email updates about new blogs! Thank you again, Shannon x

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