The Queen's Hidden Cousins

[dpgmel]

Just wondering if anyone else here watched this Channel 4 documentary last night and id they did what they made of it ?

Must admit it made me feel very very sad for Katherine Bowes-Lyon....

[Moor Larkin]

I was struck by the guy telling the story from way back then about the mad guy who was stripped naked by the nurses and left outside in the freezing cold. It was an almost identical story to the recent scandal in that badly run care-home where the staff had been allowed to degenerate into a cabal of demotivated bullies and they were all picking on a young woman in exactly the same way. She ended up locked outside in the freezing cold too.

On the other hand some people are calling for some return to that sort of institutional care because of the miserable ways the mentally deficient can end up living "in the community", when they have no flesh and blood to take an interest in them and so can become very isolated.

I have lots of cousins I have never met and have no interest in, so I'm not sure why the Queen was in the frame especially, but it makes for a good focus on all the other poor devils with nobody to speak for them.

I was wryly amused by the hypocrisy of the talking-head staff who heped cover this *scandal* up for donkeys years, and who were now implicitly criticising her madgness......... and also incidentally criticised the very journalists who DID break the story. Logs and splinters came to mind.

[Heinrich]

Disabled children where shamefully locked away and forgotten by those rich enough to have been able to show more charity.

[wadey]

Nothing suprises me about that lot

[midnight sheep]

The Queen was horrified when she heard about the documentary.I'm not suprised.It shows the family in a poor light.
As one of the interviewees said, the inbreeding between cousins often results in these problems.
Hushing it up is one thing, but failing to care for them in any way is the real crime.
Cards, gifts or the occasional visit would have made all the difference to their rather sad lives.

[Chevyman]

The Queen was horrified when she heard about the documentary.I'm not suprised.It shows the family in a poor light.
As one of the interviewees said, the inbreeding between cousins often results in these problems.
Hushing it up is one thing, but failing to care for them in any way is the real crime.
Cards, gifts or the occasional visit would have made all the difference to their rather sad lives.

And a decent headstone? Watched this tonight (recorded) and found it particularly disturbing.

[Brief Encounter]

On the one hand, it isn't really HM's immediate family. It isn't even her mother's immediate family. Apparently HM was aware of them, but at what point I wonder?

On the other hand, the lack of visits and presents/cards etc is quite sad, and maybe that's where the Royals could have done something. Certainly, even if visits were too distressing, attending her funeral was surely not too much trouble!

[Mark O]

I recall a newspaper article in The Sun in 1986 about the forgotten cousins of the Queen mother, they're not new news, it's a shame that back in the day it was deemed 'appropriate' to send mentally disabled persons away, but that's just the way it was, no one can change history.

[Timmy_Lea]

Disgusting behaviour from those odious royals!!!

[Steve Crook]

Disgusting behaviour from those odious royals!!!

As if they were the only people to have done it
Nearly everyone was doing it back then. Some were allowed to stay with their families in rural areas as the village idiot but the majority were locked away in asylums. It was the same for the royal family as it was for the poorest in the land

Steve

[Timmy_Lea]

As if they were the only people to have done it
Nearly everyone was doing it back then. Some were allowed to stay with their families in rural areas as the village idiot but the majority were locked away in asylums. It was the same for the royal family as it was for the poorest in the land

Steve

Mmm, don't recall saying they were the only people to have done it. . .

[narabdela]

Mmm, don't recall saying they were the only people to have done it. . .

I think your post implied it tbh. I would assume it was tongue in cheek.

[Steve Crook]

Mmm, don't recall saying they were the only people to have done it. . .

So why highlight the behaviour of what you call "those odious royals" in your unbiased way?

Steve

[Richard_in_wales]

Really it was the Bowes-Lyon's family who are to blame. When my wife trained as a Mental Health Nurse in the late 70's she told me of elderly women who had been committed because of things like getting pregnant out of marriage, refusing to marry some chap the family thought right, 'nerves' and of course learning disability problems etc. By the late 70's they were too institutionalised to send them out into the big world. Often these poor souls were dropped off in the hospital and that was that, no more contact from the family. Thankfully there have been massive improvements in the delivery of care in mental health.

I don't blame the Royal family and certainly not the Queen but perhaps now a headstone would be a nice gesture.

[Steve Crook]

Really it was the Bowes-Lyon's family who are to blame. When my wife trained as a Mental Health Nurse in the late 70's she told me of elderly women who had been committed because of things like getting pregnant out of marriage, refusing to marry some chap the family thought right, 'nerves' and of course learning disability problems etc. By the late 70's they were too institutionalised to send them out into the big world. Often these poor souls were dropped off in the hospital and that was that, no more contact from the family. Thankfully there have been massive improvements in the delivery of care in mental health.

Have you ever seen "Skallagrig"?

Steve

[Brief Encounter]

I don't blame the Royal family and certainly not the Queen but perhaps now a headstone would be a nice gesture.

I believe Nerissa now has one. I thought the documentary said so.

[dpgmel]

I believe Nerissa now has one. I thought the documentary said so.

Yes it did and she does I'm pleased to say.

[Tonch]

Ever since I first read about it as a teenager, "The Horror Of Glamis" has always fascinated me:

The Monster of Glamis | CFI Blogs