The Queens Hidden Cousins on tv this week

[pigletmania]

I have just watched a documentary of two of the Queens cousins from her mothers side of the family, who were hidden away because they have learning disabilities. It was heartbreaking to watch, and I am disgusted at the way the Royal Family and Bowes Lyon family have treated these ladies. The eldest died, she had a paupers grave, with just staff attending . Nobdy from her family attended. It was also very interesting to hear of the history of learning disabilities and how they were seen 60-70 years ago. Just really

I saw that programme too, piglet and it made for very harrowing watching.
They appeared to be completely dumped and the pauper's grave was so poignant.
I always felt that the QM was a particularly hard woman, very unforgiving.
One of the sisters was the absolute double of the Queen.

Exactly soup it was sad to hear that the sisters loved the Royal Family, and loved watching them on the tv, and would salute and courtsey to the tv, if only they knew, that they were a part of it . That it was THEIR family. Even now, the other sister is still alive, but you don't hear of the family visiting her, even now when things have progressed so far, they still keep her secret and hidden. There were also 3 other members of the Bowes-Lyon family in that institution at around the same time. They also kept a young boy hidden at around the time of the Zsar reign as he had epilepsy, I think that his name as Alexander. Yes that family is very cold and hard, if your face don't fit you are hidden.

I used to work with adults who have learning disabilities, and worked in a day facility in the community. I was talking to some of the older clients who came from the old institutions, and they were saying exactly the same thing, about sharing clothes and underwear, and talking about the regimentation and anonymity about it all, was really sad to hear them. Yes what my clients were telling me was echoed in the programme

The truly awful thing about that programme was the cruelty and sadistic behaviour by some of the staff. I cannot imagine how it must have felt for any of the patients....the patient left out in the snow

The Royal family continue to see learning difficulties or congenital problems as a taboo imo and by 'ridding' themselves of the sisters and cousins, the problem ceased to exist.

Unbelievably callous.

It is soup I wonder if there are any other people with LD in the Bowes lyon family now. What if Prince William and Catherine Middleton had children with LD what would happen now.

What was the programme called and when was it on?. Is it available on IPlayer?
It all sounds very sad. If I remember correctly from watching 'The King's Speech' the Queen's father had a younger brother who had epilepsy and was kept hidden away - he died in childhood though.

Here it is bigbluebus

justabout no it was not! The programme basically painted the picture that nobody from the family visited, and they could not care less. Oh yes, I did'nt realise it was the Queens Uncle who had epilepsy.

I am trying to understand why the women were just hidden away.
I mean, were they seen as being a blight on the family or that their mother could not cope even although they could have afforded help?

This issue gave the Royal family an opportunity to champion adults with special needs yet the programme still felt as if it was a covert secret which had been discovered.

soup it was what happened at the time, people with disability were viewed in a negative light as well as disability in the RF being an embarrassment as it was generally viewed as a lower class thing, not something that affects the aristocracy.

There was an issue with the Belgian royal family, justabout. I cannot remember the name of the artist who painted portraits of the then Royal family but do remember that he got into severe trouble for the honesty of his art as opposed to what he ought to have painted.

piglet

Thats what was said by the a historian on learning disabilities in the programme, and yes when I did my BTEC Health and Social care, we did a history of LD the same things were said.

I was disgusted by the paupers funeral. These people have more than enough money to spare - at the very least the DSS shouldn't be paying for a decent burial, that to me is benefit fraud of the most blatent kind by the royal family. Initially Institutionalisation fitted the social mores of a time when single Mums were incarcerated in mental homes, it's the lack of adjustment to changing social mores and the lack of even a decent funeral that disgusted me.

The Queen Mum was a very hard, ambitous character behind that sweet public veneer. She had a rep for cutting out those who didn't fit the public image she like to portray quite ruthlessly, (remember fergie and diana being stripped of the hrh or the exile of Wallis Simpson?). However the paupers burial when she was patron of mencap showed her up as a terrible hypocrite.

The Hanoverian dynasty was famous for a birth defect and we had mad king George, so the issue of special needs & Royalty is not a new one.

However the paupers burial when she was patron of mencap showed her up as a terrible hypocrite

Totally agree there bochead I thought that myself when I was watching it, i was like . How could the Bowes Lyon family and RF sleep at night, and that paupers funeral was just so . There was no need for it, Nerissa came from a very wealthy and aristocratic family, they should have been billed for a decent funeral for her.

none of her family turned up, just staff who used to care for her . That speaks volumes.

this certainly wasnt exclusive to the rf, in many cases if a disability was present at birth the child was taken from the mother & unless the family challenged the dr's (sometihng rarely done) thye were sent away & in many cases the families were never told where they ended up.
Very sad & thnakfully we have come a long way

I know someone who has an LD in his 60's, he has lived in the area all his life, and my mum knew his family. He lived and grew up with his parents, they died and he lived independently in the old family home. He has intervention from Social services to help him do this though, but it was nice that he did not go into one of those institutions.