There have been several fires at the Royal palaces in recent memory.

The Royals were left devastated when Windsor Castle was seriously damaged by a fire in 1992, contributing to what the late Queen referred to as her annus horribilis.

Then in 2002 a number of artworks were damaged in Buckingham Palace after a small fire broke out in the East Gallery. 

But one elderly member of the Royal Family gained a reputation for regularly (and accidentally) causing the blazes in the late 1960s.

According to royal biographer Tom Quinn in his book Yes Ma’am – which lifts the curtain on the life of the men and women who serve the Royal Family – Prince Philip’s mother Princess Alice ‘regularly’ set fire to her own apartment in Buckingham Palace.

Agnes Cooke, who worked in the royal kitchen for a number of years, told Quinn that Alice’s love of cigarettes was behind her fiery habit.

She said: ‘Well, there was a lady in waiting who was very friendly with Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, when Alice was living at Buckingham Palace, and they used to smoke cigarettes together in Alice’s apartment – so much so that they regularly set fire to it.

‘And despite being very grand indeed – a member of one of Britain’s oldest and most aristocratic families – this particular lady in waiting used to wander about with a cigarette stuck behind her ear, like a coal miner or a carpenter.’  

According to Royal biographer Tom Quinn in his book ‘Yes Ma’am’ Prince Philip’s mother Princess Alice ‘regularly’ set fire to her own apartment in Buckingham Palace

Firefighters tackling the blaze at Windsor Castle in 1992. The devastating fire contributing to what the late Queen referred to as her annus horribilis

Agnes Cooke, who worked in the royal kitchen for a number of years, told Quinn that Alice’s love of cigarettes was behind her fiery habit during her time living in the palace 

Princess Alice’s life is one of the most remarkable in the history of the Royal Family. 

She was born Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Mary on 25 February 1885 at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Shortly after her birth it was discovered that Alice was congenitally deaf but could speak clearly and lip read in several languages. 

While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece – a year later the couple were wed.

Alice married into the Greek Royal Family at a tumultuous time with the family exiled from the country in 1921, the same year Prince Philip was born.

By 1930 she was hearing voices and believed she was having intimate relationships with Jesus and other religious figures. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic before being treated by Sigmund Freud at a clinic in Berlin.

When Charles’ grandmother was released from the the sanatorium in 1932, she drifted between modest German B&Bs before she eventually returned to Athens following the restoration of the Greek monarchy. 

Alice then found herself stranded in Nazi-occupied Greece throughout WW2. 

Alice reportedly enjoyed smoking a cigarette with one particular lady-in-waiting so much that they regularly set fire to her Buckingham Palace apartment

Jane Lapotaire played Princess Alice in the hit Netflix series The Crown

Princess Alice with her husband Prince Andrew of Greece. While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece – a year later the couple were wed

Due to her links to Germany, with her cousin serving as German ambassador to Greece until the start of the occupation, the Nazi soldiers wrongly assumed Alice was sympathetic to their cause. 

Instead when a general asked Alice if there was anything he could do for her, she bravely responded: ‘You can take your troops out of my country.’

During the war, she was instrumental in aiding the escape from Greece of several Jews. Alice even hid the Cohen’s, Jewish family, on the top floor of her home, just yards away from Gestapo headquarters.

When the Gestapo became suspicious and questioned the Princess, she used her deafness as an excuse not to answer their questions and prevented them from entering her property.

Following the war, diamonds were used from Alice’s tiara so Philip could present a ring to Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen.

Alice sold the rest of her jewels to create her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, in 1949, becoming a nun.

When the future King Charles III was born in 1948, Alice was living on the remote Greek island of Tinos. 

Princess Alice with her son Prince Philip. The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home

Princess Alice with a young King Charles III and Princess Anne in 1957

She went on to build a convent and orphanage in a poor suburb of Athens.

The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home.

She spent the final years of her life living at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law before she died in December 1969, aged 84. She is buried in a crypt at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.