VICTORIA

Sir William Jenner (1815-1898) English Physician, primarily remembered for having discovered the distinction between typhus and typhoid. Appointed Physician Extraordinary (1861) and Physician in Ordinary (1862) to Queen Victoria. Jenner played a large role in attempting to treat Prince Leopold for haemophilia from 1861 until his death, and it is quite likely that Jenner contributed to the cover-up of the Prince's disease. Arnold Royle was Surgeon in Ordinary to HRH Prince Leopold (George Albert, 1853-1884, 4th Son of Queen Victoria, Duke of Albany, a haemophiliac, died after an accident on 28th March in Cannes) and his personal physician from 1876 until the Prince's death from a cerebral haemorrhage in 1884, so he found himself caught between his strong-willed patient, determined to live an active life, and his equally strong-willed mother. Furthermore, the Queen evidently had somewhat limited faith in Royle and constantly wished him to defer to her favoured physician, Sir William Jenner as shown in this letter. Eventually, however, the medical skill and diplomatic aplomb with which Royle carried out his duties did gain acknowledgement from the Queen, who appointed him a Groom of the Privy Chamber in November 1884, some months after Prince Leopold's death.Within three months of this letter Prince Leopold and Princess Helena of Waldeck & Pyrmont were married at Windsor, on 27th April.