On 27th March 1883 Queen Victoria’s Highland servant (and potential lover), John Brown, passed away at Windsor Castle. According to the Queen’s journals, Brown had fallen ill erysipelas on 25th March, however, he had been suffering for some time beforehand but still remained by her side. The following day his face had become swollen, leading him to fall unconscious and pass away on 27th March.
Queen Victoria had been particularly close to John Brown following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, with many courtiers and newspapers making scandalous remarks over the nature of their friendship. Less than two weeks before her companion fell ill, Queen Victoria had injured her leg after falling down some stairs. Due to this, it’s unlikely that she had been able to visit Brown during his final illness. Like with the passing of Prince Albert, it appears that the doctors and the Queen’s family used this to their advantage and lied to the monarch over the state of Brown’s health out of fear of how she would react. On the day of his passing, Victoria notes in her journal that Brown had been ‘a little better’. However, we know this clearly wasn’t the case.
The following day it appears that the family had began preparing the Queen for the worst, with her recording that ‘accounts of my good Brown very bad. Am very anxious’. Of course, Queen Victoria’s journals from this time were heavily edited by the Queen’s youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, following Victoria’s own passing in 1901, making them a somewhat unreliable source for the Queen’s true thoughts and feelings on the matter of Brown’s passing. However, Beatrice was the only one of the Queen’s children to get along with the Scotsman, giving her little ammunition to remove signs of the Queen’s grief entirely.
A fine morning, 29th March 1883 was the day that Queen Victoria’s world came tumbling down for a second time. As the Queen was getting dressed for the day ahead, her youngest son, Prince Leopold, entered her ‘dressing room, & broke the dreadful news to me, that my good, faithful Brown, had passed away early this morning’. She goes through n to say ‘[I] am terribly upset by this loss, which removes one, who was so devoted & attached to my service & who did so much for my personal comfort. It is the loss not only of a servant, but of a real friend.’
Despite their different statuses as monarch and servant, Queen Victoria had been particularly involved with John Brown’s family, many of whom were given positions in her households. Upon hearing of Brown’s death, Victoria had arranged for his brothers to come to Windsor. Following their arrival on 30th March, Victoria made it her duty to tell them ‘of their dear brother’s dreadful illness, of which they knew nothing’. Victoria’s reaction to Brown’s loss is a complete contrast to when she lost other members of staff, after all he had been at her beck and call for over two decades since the death of Albert.
‘I cannot really believe, that I have lost this good trusted servant & friend, whom I shall constantly miss,’ she consoled in her journal.
On Tuesday 3rd April a short service was held at the castle ‘before good Brown’s remains were removed’. While at this time it was unusual for women to attend funerals, Victoria made sure to attend this informal ceremony and ‘placed some flowers on the coffin. It upset me much, & it is most painful to think I shall never see him again.’
Two months after Brown’s passing Queen Victoria returned to her beloved Balmoral in the Scottish highlands, where she had first met her devoted servant. One of the first things she did after arriving was to visit and place flowers on Brown’s grave. ‘It upset me very much, as does this first return to Balmoral, without him,’ adding ‘I realise more & more what I have lost in that devoted servant & friend, who l am without for the first time since 34 years, with him no longer there, to think of my comfort & enjoyment, as he always did.’
On 29th August that same year, Queen Victoria returned to Brown’s graveside once more, this time to admire to new granite headstone that she had had made and placed above his remains. The inscription on the stone reads:
This stone is erected in affectionate and grateful remembrance of John Brown the devoted and faithful personal attendant and beloved friend of Queen Victoria in whose service he had been for 34 years. Born at Crathienaird 8th Decr. 1826 died at Windsor Castle 27th March 1883. That Friend on whose fidelity you count/that Friend given to you by circumstances/over which you have no control/was God’s own gift. Well done good and faithful servant/Thou hast been faithful over a few things,/I will make thee ruler over many things/Enter through into the joy of the Lord.
In her journal the Queen wrote that she laid a wreath of flowers on the ‘simple & nice’ grave, adding that it ‘always upsets & makes me sad to realise that the excellent faithful servant is really gone, never to return’.
To Victoria, John Brown was more than just a servant, he was a companion that filled the painful gap left behind after Albert’s passing. He was a connection to those ‘former happy years’ that she had spent exploring the highlands with her beloved Albert, assisted by Brown, who has previously served the prince. Just like his former master, John Brown’s death was unexpected and ‘brought home painfully to me [Victoria], the break with the past’.
© Queen.Victoria.Roses 2026
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