Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who has died aged 102, lived longer than her sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was perhaps the last great Edwardian lady; the final echo of a world and social order, now long gone. The widow of one royal duke, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary, and the mother of another, she concealed, beneath her quiet public image, a zest for adventure and a steel-like fortitude.
That spirit helped her survive the death, in a flying accident, of her 30-year-old eldest son Prince William, in 1972, and that of her husband, in 1974.
Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott, third daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch and ninth Duke of Queensberry, was born at Montagu House, the family's London mansion in Whitehall. As a child she would watch from a window as her paternal grandparents set off in the ornate Buccleuch state coach for banquets and balls at Buckingham Palace.
During the height of the London season, the house was full, with up to 70 people, including servants, in residence. (A spartan touch was that they all shared the single bathroom.) The family moved like highly privileged nomads between their several houses: Eildon Hall, in the Scottish borders; Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire; Dalkeith House, near Edinburgh; Bowhill, outside Selkirk, and Boughton, Northamptonshire. A special train would be hired to carry the family, servants, carriages, horses, and eight tons of luggage.
In her autobiography, Memories Of Ninety Years (1991), she recalled a rather grand luncheon before the first world war, when she saw, for the first time in her life, a woman smoking a cigarette. She watched fascinated as Countess Brassova, the morganatic wife of the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, fitted the cigarette into a long holder, and then, to the amazement of all, called for a servant to light it.
Alice made her "miserable" debut into society in 1919, at a dance given by the King and Queen for their daughter, Princess Mary. Alice was very shy and plump, and, she said, spent most of the evening hiding behind a pillar. She found the endless round of debutante dances "dreadful", and as season followed season, she felt the need to lead a life other than that of "pointless and boring" dilettantism.
In 1929 she made the break and set off on her travels, finding what she described as a wonderful freedom. In Africa she prospected for gold; became friendly with Karen Blixen, author of Out Of Africa, thought Blixen's husband "an awful old thing," but found Blixen's lover, Denys Finch Hatton "very attractive". She she was introduced to the Happy Valley set, notorious for promiscuity, drug taking, and hard drinking, but said she regarded them as "tiresome people, whom one avoided".
After visiting India, she undertook what she called her "great adventure", smuggling herself into Afghanistan, disguised as an Afghan, entering by a secret overland route, into an area off limits to women. She was undetected by the Afghans, but there was "a great row" when news of her escapade reached the British authorities.
Then, in 1935 she was called home, due to her father's failing health. She was 34 and having had "a good innings," decided to settle down. Prince Henry was waiting in the wings. He had been a friend of her brothers and a regular visitor to the family homes, which he treated as a refuge from the protocol dictated by life at court. They were married in November 1935 in the chapel of Buckingham Palace. In the autumn of 1938, having suffered a second miscarriage, she went with Prince Henry to Kenya to recuperate.
On their return, they stayed in Paris and were asked by the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, to visit the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who were by then living there as exiles. The government was still undecided about the Duke's future and wanted to test public opinion. The meeting between the Gloucesters and the Windsors was to be the sounding board. The Duchess of Gloucester afterwards wrote: "The Windsors took us to dine in some smart restaurant. The event received press coverage and the response from the public made it clear to the government that a reconciliation with the Windsors (and the other members of the royal family) would not be popular. We received quite a lot of rude letters, an upsetting experience at the time."
During the second world war, while Prince Henry served with the army, the Duchess was commissioned into the Waaf, and became its head in 1943. She involved herself in the work of the Red Cross, the Order of St John, and the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence, now the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, and was a trained member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).
From 1945 until 1947, she lived in Australia, following the appointment of Prince Henry as the first royal governor general. On her return, the Duchess became president or patron of many organisations, among them hospitals and welfare services, and held honorary ranks and appointments in the armed services: Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Hussars, the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Corps of Transport. She was also Air Chief Marshal of the Women's Royal Air Force (Wraf).
Her private life and happiness was centred on the 16th-century Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire, where she and Prince Henry farmed. Prince William was born in 1941, and Prince Richard, the present Duke of Gloucester, in 1944. When, in 1995, Prince Richard decided that he could no longer afford its upkeep, Barnwell was let, and Princess Alice went to live in Kensington Palace, the Gloucesters' London home.
A t the time, Prince Philip upbraided Prince Richard, telling him that his mother should be allowed to live out her days in her old home, whatever the cost. It was unfair, he said, to uproot an old lady, who lived only for her garden and her dog. Prince Richard argued that the matter was out of his hands. Huge death duties on the estate of his father and elder brother had eroded much of the family fortune.
Princess Alice, the last link to an age when the monarchy's place was unquestioned, became increasingly frail. However, at the time of her 100th birthday she posed with most members of the royal family for an historic photocall.
Ten years earlier, the Princess wrote: "Throughout my public life I have often wondered why such crowds should come to welcome me, both in my own country and overseas. Was it to see what clothes I might be wearing, or if I had a pretty face? Or was it that I represented something that lay deep rooted in their hearts; a loyal and loving respect for any member of their royal family? This last, I know, is the true answer."
She is survived by her son and three grandchildren
· Princess Alice Christabel, Duchess of Gloucester, born December 25 1901; died October 29 2004