Episode 4, Season 3: Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark

She wasn't the most well known of the Royal family. She wasn't known at all. It's as if she never existed. Her great grandmother was Queen Victoria and her great uncle was the Tzar of Russia. Her son is married to the present Queen of England. She was the sister of Lord Mountbatten, the Viceroy of India. She was born in Windsor Castle and she died in Buckingham Palace. She was Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark. A nun for her last 25 years she spent most of her life in Greece. In Episode 4 of Season 3 of the Netflix series "The Crown" we get a glimpse into the extraordinary, sometimes horrifying, and ultimately selfless life of the all but forgotten Royal.

“Consistently misunderstood, marginalized, and underestimated”.

She was born deaf, though her hearing later developed. Because of her childhood
deafness she was mistakenly treated as mentally handicapped. In 1930, married with (4) children, she was sent to an asylum due to “erratic” behavior where she was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. She was given electroshock and other uncivilized treatments. She was under the care of Sigmund Freud at one time. According to her own accounts his treatments were torturous and cruel. The protection she received as an elite member of society vanished quickly after she was perceived to be mentally compromised.

She eventually escaped the asylum and remained in Athens during WWII and was credited with saving the lives of several Jewish refugees she sheltered at great personal risk. She worked for the Red Cross, helped organize soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Louise , who was married to the Crown Prince. She organized two shelters for orphaned and lost children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighborhoods. After
the war she remained in Greece and started a small convent where she lived
humbly as a nun for 23 years. Perhaps because of her tortured and abandoned life she developed a lifelong passion for helping others.

In 1967 in Athens there was a military coup that endangered the life of
anyone with her royal background. The Queen of England sent for her and
she lived out her final two years in Buckingham Palace. She was born
in Windsor Castle in the presence of Queen Victoria and died in
Buckingham Palace... and in between she lived an incredible life filled
with bouts of torture and isolation and humiliation that led to her
life’s mission of sacrificing for those in need.

"Princess Alice is that rarest of creatures....a member of the Royal family who has suffered more than the rest of us, worked harder than the rest of us, and done more good than the rest of us."

Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark (1885-1969)