A royal legacy: Princess Beatrice’s Isle of Wight Museum

Tucked inside the ominous walls of Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight is a small, independent museum, which is bursting with royal connections. From the imprisonment of King Charles I in 1647 to toys from your childhood, the museum is a great place to visit this summer. But do you know how the museum came to exist? Or how it’s connected to Queen Victoria’s youngest child, Princess Beatrice? Join me, Shannon McInulty, as I explore the history of Carisbrooke Castle Museum!

Before we begin, let’s travel back in time to Thursday 7th May 1857, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert arrived at their Isle Wight residence, Osborne House, with all nine of their children. Described by her mother the following day as “most flourishing & well,” three week old Princess Beatrice had arrived on the island for the first time, oblivious to the poignant role it would play in her future.

Just four and a half years later, on 19th December 1861, Beatrice and her siblings were swept to Osborne just five days after the death of their father, Prince Albert. From there on, Beatrice became her mother’s lifelong companion and spent much of her time isolated at Osborne. As she got older Beatrice’s need for freedom got greater. In 1884 Beatrice met Prince Henry of Battenberg at the wedding of her niece, Princess Victoria of Hesse. The two married fifteen months later, on 23rd July 1885, at St Mildred’s Church in the nearby village of Whippingham. Afterwards the wedding party returned to Osborne to celebrate.

As agreed upon their engagement, the newlyweds continued to live with the Queen at court and spent much of their time Osborne, where a separate wing was later built to accommodate the couple and their four children. It’s believed that Beatrice and Henry were the perfect love match, with many describing how their love was so great that it rejoiced Osbornes atmosphere back to what it had been before Albert’s death. However, Henry soon became bored by his new, more relaxed lifestyle and limited workload. Wanting to keep her favourite son-in-law happy, Queen Victoria appointed him as Governor of the Isle of Wight, a role with little significance. While Henry was satisfied with his new position, he still pined for the military career of his past.

After much persuading, in 1895 Queen Victoria finally agreed for Henry to join the Ashanti expedition in the Anglo-Ashanti war. On 6th December that same year, Princess Beatrice proudly embraced her husband before sending him on his way. However, this would be the final time she saw him alive. On 22nd January 1896, Beatrice was waiting to meet Henry in Madeira when she received a telegram with the news that Henry had passed away from malaria two days earlier.

However, with the heartbreaking end to their relationship comes the beginning of our wonderful museums existence.

Beatrice was understandably distraught by her husband’s death and, like her mother, plummeted into a deep state of mourning. According to the Princess’s biographer, Matthew Dennison, she converted her sitting room at Osborne into a shrine; draping “a stand of three shelves with a Union Jack and placing on it four rows of photographs, crowned by a large photograph of Liko [Henry] in uniform with, on the table below, his sword and helmets.”

Hoping to give her daughter a sense of purpose, Queen Victoria proudly appointed Beatrice as the islands new Governor on 8th June 1896. Also recognising the permanence of Beatrice’s shrine, Queen Victoria suggested she open a museum in Henry’s memory at Carisbrooke Castle.

Agreeing to her mother’s idea, Beatrice began gathering a collection of items to go on display, many of which were kindly donated by the Queen and other royals. After two and a half years and twenty-five committee meetings, Beatrice officially opened the Museum on 11th August 1898.

Following Queen Victorias death in January 1901, Beatrice’s brother – the new King Edward VII – decided to give Osborne to the nation. As a result, Beatrice was forced to move out of her apartments and into nearby Osborne Cottage on the estate, which had previously been used as an overflow guest house. The cottage soon became too expensive for the aging Princess to maintain, leading to Beatrice selling it in 1912. The following year, she moved into Carisbrooke Castle – part of which had been restored following Henry’s death – as her summer residence. This is where the museum is housed today, but we’ll talk about that more later!

As the years passed, Beatrice continued to undergo her duties on the Isle of Wight and even helped set up a trust to safeguard the museum’s future. Having spent most of her life on the island, and forty years as its governor, Beatrice was praised by islanders, who saw her as one of their own. In April 1937 the Princess celebrated her 80th birthday. While her own celebrations had been relatively quiet at Kensington Palace, the island was excited to celebrate and show their appreciation by making a large gesture.

It was decided that the islanders would give Beatrice a 1602 organ, which is believed to have been played by King Charles I’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, while she was imprisoned at the castle. In order to purchase the £400 gift from Lady Maud Warrender, an island-wide subscription was set up to help raise funds. The target was eventually achieved by 25th September and the organ was presented to the princess on Sunday 3rd October at a special ceremony held at the castle. The Princess was also given a commemorative book containing the signatures of everyone that contributed. Upon accepting the gift, Beatrice donated the organ to the castle, where it can still be seen today.

Beatrice spent one final summer at the castle in 1938 before outbreak of the Second World War, which – along with poor health – prevented her from travelling to the island. On 28th July 1940 she wrote to Lord Morristown that she was “truly sorry to be kept away from there [Carisbrooke Castle] for such a long time but it is impossible under the circumstances to go there… I cannot help rather worrying about all my nice things which I left there, and being possibly destroyed should bombs fall on the castle.”

Beatrice passed away at Brantridge Park in Sussex on 26th October 1944, before she could return to her beloved castle. However, her body was transported back to the island and buried beside Henry at St Mildred’s Church. Fortunately the trust set up by Beatrice meant that the museum could continue.

By 1948, the gatehouse museum became overcrowded by the growing collection. The trustees suggested to the Ministry of Works, who cared for the castle, that the museum be moved into the Governor’s House, which at that time was being used as a youth hostel. A year later, King George V agreed to their request and the new museum was opened on 2nd April 1951 by Beatrice’s successor, the Duke of Wellington.

Today the museum looks after over 35,000 objects, many of which can be seen on display across six galleries! Welcoming thousands of visitors each year, the museum is an independent charity, which is mostly ran on kind the support of volunteers and donations – tap here to support the museum. As I said at the beginning of this article, the museum is filled with a vast range of history so I highly recommend visiting next time you are on the Isle of Wight. Tap here to find out more about Carisbrooke Castle Museum.

©️Queen.Victoria.Roses 2024

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s article, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Carisbrooke Castle Museum for their support over the last few months. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section below or message me on Instagram and I will do my best to help. You can also support my research by visiting and subscribing to my Ko-fi page. Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to by blog for email updates about new blogs! Thank you again, Shannon x

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