Mrs. Alice Keppel had an interesting and romantic background. Her
        grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel John Whittle Parsons, while British
        Governor of the Ionian Islands, fell in love and married a beautiful
        Greek girl whom he took back to Scotland. Their daughter, Mary
        Elizabeth Parsons, married Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet, who as
        a youth had entered the Royal Navy. When only sixteen he was wounded
        by pirates. Sir William was thirty-one when he married Mary Elizabeth
        and they became the parents of only the one son but eight daughters,
        of whom Alice was the youngest.
            Alice grew up at Duntreath Castle, the family home since the
        fifteenth century. Her only brother, Archibald, was nearest in age to
        Alice and they were like twins. She loved walking across the moors and
        joined the gillies in their games of cricket. She had a sharp wit and
        grew up to become the typical aristocratic Scotswoman, but was also
        kind, without pettiness, prejudice or malice. She never spoke ill of
        anyone, almost never lost her temper. "She not only had a gift of
        happiness but she excelled in making others happy," according to a
        contemporary.
            Her family was not very well off and the attractive Alice was
        expected to marry a rich husband. However, she married for love. The
        Hon. George Keppel, a son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle, was well-born,
        handsome, charming but not rich. They married in 1891 when he was
        twenty-six and she twenty-two. However, she soon felt their financial
        restrictions and it has been suggested that she took a wealthy lover.
        Her first daughter was born in 1894, the father rumoured to be the
        rich Ernest William Beckett, the future Lord Grimthorpe.
            Probably early in 1898 she met the Prince of Wales and, within a
        matter of weeks, Alice was his new official mistress. The Prince was
        fifty-six and Alice twenty-nine. Apart from the obvious attractions,
        the Prince also appreciated her as an accomplished bridge-player. An
        ideal mistress for an older man, she became the great love of Edward
        VII.
            One of the first things the Keppels did was move house, from
        Wilton Crescent to 30 Portman Square where her second daughter, Sonia,
        was born in 1900. Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, preferred the
        discreet Alice to the Prince's previous mistress, Daisy Warwick, but
        still disliked her. According to the Duchess of Sutherland, Daisy's
        half-sister, remarked the Prince, was "a child, such a much pleasanter
        child since he changed mistresses". Yet Alexandra was grateful as
        Alice kept the Prince in a good temper, yet her presence at the annual
        regatta at Cowes still always upset the Princess of Wales.
            All through these years Alice's husband not only remained at her
        side but was devoted to her. He neither complained nor showed
        jealousy. Once, while at Baden, a Grand Duke asked him: "So you're a
        Keppel? Are you related to the king's mistress?" But George Keppel
        ignored the insult. To keep up their style of life, he had to go into
        trade and was employed by Sir Thomas Lipton. According to their
        daughter the marriage of George and Alice was "a companionship of love
        and laughter".
            When Edward VII was dying and asked for Alice's presence, Queen
        Alexandra reluctantly allowed her to come. However, when Edward VII
        became unconscious, she hissed at the doctor, "Get that woman away."
        To avoid publicity Alice and George moved out of their home and spent
        some time with friends in Grafton Street. Thinking it better to be out
        of England, Alice travelled to the Far East, Ceylon and China, staying
        away for almost two years. On her return she bought a new house at 16
        Grosvenor Street. During the First World War she helped her friend,
        Lady Sarah Wilson, run her hospital in Boulogne. Towards the end of
        the war her daughter Violet embarked on a love affaire with Vita
        Sackville-West; to avoid scandal, she suggested that her daughter
        marry Denys Trefusis. The marriage did take place but then Violet
        threatened to divorce, so Alice cut her daughter's allowance and this
        was the beginning of the end of Violet's and Vita's affaire.
            In 1927 the Keppels sold their Grosvenor Street house and moved to
        Italy. Near Florence they bought the Villa dell'Ombrellino where they
        live, with the exception of the Second World War, for the rest of
        their lives. When it was announced that Edward VIII was abdicating in
        order to marry Wallis Simpson, her opinion was "things were done much
        better in my day".
            In 1940 they left Florence and returned to England where they
        stayed in the country with their daughter Sonia. However, becoming
        bored, she preferred "bombs to boredom" and so they moved to London to
        stay the rest of the war years in the Ritz. During this time in
        England, together with her daughter Violet, she paid a visit to Queen
        Mary.
            In 1946 they returned to their villa in Italy but soon it became
        obvious that Alice was dying. However, this took a long time and one
        day her daughter Violet tried to cheer her up: "Look at the view from
        your window---surely you love nature?" "Yes", Alice answered, "the
        nature of the Ritz." She died aged seventy-eight and, heartbroken,
        George Keppel died two months later. Soon solemn Italian guides would
        point to their villa and, ironically, tell tourists that there had
        lived "the last lover of Queen Victoria."
 

Source: Leo van de Pas