Monday 18 December 2017

Princess Margaret’s death: was it a mercy killing?

Are there sinister elements in this case? Should we be suspicious of the official stories?

When Princess Margaret died in 2002, allegedly from a stroke, she had been off many people’s radar for a while. She was not greatly missed, and her death was eclipsed by the death of the Queen Mother a few weeks later. 

It was many years before the idea came into my mind that perhaps we were not told the full truth about her death. An article in the Daily Mail in 2016 about the release of art historian Sir Roy Strong’s diaries in which Princess Margaret was mentioned reminded me of these thoughts and inspired a short post for the old Conservative Conspiracy forum. I re-posted the material in the Alternaticity Project forum earlier this year.

Thinking once again about the tragic end to a life of hedonism reminded me of how the lives of Maria Callas and the Duchess of Windsor ended. In Princess Margaret’s case, so far as we know there was no sinister woman involved but she too ended up ill, alone and very unhappy. It seemed to me that there might have been some unseen influences at work in her life – and death.

Princess Margaret in 1949, decades before her decline:



Some connections 
Ending their lives in a terrible state is not the only connection between these women, who moved in much the same circles and led much the same glamorous, jet-setting lives. 

If it had not been for Wallis Simpson, later the Duchess of Windsor and the woman for whom her uncle Edward VIII abdicated the throne, Princess Margaret’s life might have been very different; she might even have been a better, happier person. 

Maria Callas was often a guest at the Windsors’ home The Mill in Paris, and she considered buying it when it came onto the market. Group Captain Peter Townsend, the man Princess Margaret had wanted to marry, was a regular visitor too. The Mill was later bought by Townsend’s daughter and her husband.

Here we see Maria Callas with Peter Townsend:


Roy Strong’s opinion of Princess Margaret
Sir Roy’s position of director of the Victoria & Albert Museum gave him frequent access to many members of the royal family. He became disappointed and disillusioned with them after spending much time in their company. Princess Margaret was more cultured and interested in the arts than some, but her manner was appalling. He called her tiresome, spoilt, idle and irritating.

Sir Roy also said that Princess Margaret was arrogant and capricious and destroyed by her lifestyle. By 1997, she had become so inconsiderate that he couldn’t stand it any longer. 

He said:

It is a curious fact that if she had died in the middle of the 1960s, the response would have been akin to that on the death of Diana. As it was, she lived long enough for the bitter truth about her to become general knowledge.

This was a Princess who never seemed to think of any of the inconvenience she caused or that it was anything other than everyone’s role to fulfil her slightest whim. All of this was so sad because, when young, she had been beautiful, vivacious and at times quick-witted.

But the downside won and that’s what the public in the end perceived. She was devoid of the common touch, attracting many to her circle who were sleazy glitterati and lived, it seemed, entirely for her own pleasure. The end was so tragic, a half-paralysed, bloated figure in a wheelchair but, I suppose, 50 years of cigarettes and whisky had effectively destroyed her system.”

Some relevant facts and figures
Princess Margaret was aged 71 when she died, reportedly in her sleep, in hospital in February 2002; her mother died a few weeks later at the age of 101; her father King George VI, a heavy smoker, had died at the age of 56. Her sister the Queen is still going strong at the age of 91.

Princess Margaret experienced many health problems in later life. She had a lung operation at the age of 55. She had a stroke at the age of 64. She scalded her feet very badly when she was 68, and they never fully healed. She had two strokes in 2001, losing sight in one eye and movement on the left side of her body. She became a permanent invalid and could only move around in a wheelchair.

Her quality of life was greatly diminished and her capacity for enjoyment greatly impaired. She was unable to eat and suffered permanent short-term memory loss. She needed someone to read to her; she couldn’t bear to be seen by men. 

She appeared to be losing the will to live.

Members of the public were horrified by what they saw when Princess Margaret made a brief public appearance outside her London home in August 2001 on the occasion of the Queen Mother’s 101st birthday. She sat slumped in a wheelchair; she looked pale, frail and bloated; she appeared confused.

She had often been sedated during her final weeks. She was taken to hospital with heart problems after suffering another stroke, and died after a few hours there.

All this is more than enough to explain why she died when she did, why she may have wanted to die and why many people would have considered her death to be not a tragedy but a long-overdue merciful release.

The Princess had lost most of her earlier popularity; many people had become disillusioned with her so would not have been too sorry to see her go. At her home in Kensington Palace, there was only a small queue to sign the books of condolence and not many flowers were left there. 

There may be conspiracy theories about her birth, but not about her death. The reaction was mainly relief that she was at peace; indifference and even ‘good riddance’ were also seen.

Princess Margaret started out as a fairytale princess; it is tragic that she ended up in such a terrible state.

Princess Margaret at her best and worst:



Princess Margaret’s death
Was she cremated to hide the evidence of a mercy killing – or voluntary euthanasia?

The royal family respected Princess Margaret’s wishes for her send-off. Her last request - we are told - was for a no-frills cremation, to be unattended by members of her family. She wanted to make her final journey alone, and with no traditional big funeral ceremonials. 

By coincidence, it was Maria Callas’s wish too to be cremated, and at a closed ceremony with only a handful of closest friends in attendance.

Princess Margaret was the first royal to be cremated in 60 years. The given reason is that she simply wanted to be with her beloved father. There is no room in the royal vault for a conventional burial, so she chose cremation in the certainty that her ashes would rest alongside George VI. 

A more sinister reason is that cremation destroys evidence of the cause of death. Russian investigators recently opened the tomb of Czar Alexander III, who died in 1894, for DNA tests; something similar could happen here. 

The royal physician gave the dying King George V two lethal injections to assure a painless death - and to hasten his departure so that the announcement would be made in the morning papers. This secret was concealed for 50 years. Could something similar have happened to Princess Margaret?

Princess Margaret died in the elite King Edward VII Hospital in Marylebone in London, not far from the notorious Portland Place.

This hospital has been used by various members of the royal family. It is where Kate Middleton was staying at the time of the hoax call that resulted in the death, attributed to suicide, of the nurse Jacintha Saldanha. It is where the Queen went when she needed treatment for gastroenteritis; when she left, she was escorted out by a nurse who was wearing a masonic belt buckle.

No allegations, just speculation resulting from reading about Princess Margaret’s final years, seeing some patterns and joining some dots.

Princess Margaret with Peter Townsend, the man she wanted to marry: