The undignified scramble for brides, following the untimely death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, resulted in marriages for the Dukes of Clarence (William IV), Kent and Cambridge. In each case the groom was considerably older than the bride, providing England at a later stage with three dowagers, one of whom, the Duchess of Cambridge (Auguste of Hessen-Kassel), survived her husband by thirty-nine years.
In quick succession, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge became the parents of a son, George, a daughter, Auguste, and, after a lapse of eleven years, another daughter, Mary Adelaide. In his diary her brother recorded: "10 January 1834. Yesterday evening the christening of Mary took place. A most solemn and beautiful ceremony and the service was well performed by Mr. W(ood). The little baby did not cry at all. I signed my name as witness".
This brother George, later 2nd Duke of Cambridge, and once considered as a possible spouse for Queen Victoria, married Louisa Fairbrother, a marriage frowned upon and not recognised by the Royal Family. There is a story that while Princess Mary, George's youngest sister, was driving in Hyde Park, her lady-in- waiting suddenly exclaimed: "Why! There's Mrs. FitzGeorge." "Where?" asked the Princess excitedly. "Which is she? I have never yet seen her."
When in 1850 their father was dying, Auguste, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, travelled night and day to reach him before he died; she arrived seven hours after all was over. During the Duke's last days, Princess Mary spent many hours at Cambridge House. "I feel so grateful to God," she wrote,"that I was permitted to be with him, for he liked to have me with him, when Mama was for a moment called away, to fan him and to bathe his temples with eau-de-Cologne; and then he would press my hand and whisper, "Charming," and "Dear". The same evening all was over, and the spirit had returned to God who gave it. His will be done."
In 1857 their aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, died. "We young people," wrote Princess Mary, "that is to say, George, Augusta and I, loved her as a second mother. She was an angelic being and I trust that one day I may follow her bright example, and resemble her in mind and heart as well as in name."
When in 1858 Vicky, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, pregnant for the first time, discussed the arrangements for the birth with her Court Chamberlain, Queen Victoria was shocked; she was shocked again when Princess Mary of Cambridge asked Prince Albert whether Vicky suffered much from morning sickness, as these conditions were not to be discussed with "any gentleman". "Poor Mary", as Queen Victoria called her because of her vast proportions, became engaged at last,
aged thirty-three, to the four-years-younger Prince of Teck. Franz, handsome, vivacious and dark, was the morganatic son of Duke Alexander of Wuerttemberg and the Hungarian Countess Claudine Rhedey, and Queen Victoria considered "Poor Mary" had chosen well. Mary's brother and mother were both delighted, for there had been anxious times when it seemed possible that no suitable offer would ever be made.
Princess Mary was generous, impulsive, and entertaining, but she was "a mountain of a girl", and her massive proportions scarcely hinted at the attraction of her character. Everything about her was vast and generous: the way she looked, the way she ran into debt, the way she forgave and forgot animosities.
"Fat Mary", large, jolly and generous, often found herself in pecuniary difficulties and at one time, in order to economise, moved with her family to Florence and it was here that her daughter
Mary, the future Queen Mary, acquired an interest in art which was to remain with her all her life. Two years later they returned to London, arriving on daughter Mary's eighteenth birthday.
Princess Mary was much beloved and she was loudly cheered in the jubilee Procession of 1887. She said to a friend afterwards: "Yes, dear, as one of the old Royal Family the kind public always
gives me a warm welcome."
When her mother died (6 April 1889) aged ninety-two, the end had come so suddenly that none of her children was with her.Queen Victoria, seated between Princess Mary and Princess Augusta,
attended and, except that of her son Leopold, it was the only funeral she ever attended.
The Duchess of Teck's visit to the 1897 Jubilee Review was one of her last public appearances. Earlier in the year she had been taken seriously ill in the night and had been saved only by
immediate surgery; however, her recovery was only temporary and, at three a.m. on October 27 after a second emergency operation, her heart failed. She left no will.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas