This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

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Prince Consort's statue unveiling

Memorialising Albert

Prince Albert's lasting influence can be seen in many mediums

      QUEEN VICTORIA, QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM (1819-1901)

      'Tis better to have loved & lost than never to have loved at all'

      c.1862-81

      Hand-written transcript on mourning paper | 17.5 x 11.2 cm (first page) (whole object) | RCIN 1005991.a

      This four page document contains a transcript by Queen Victoria of 'In Memoriam' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Following the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria found comfort in Tennyson's poem, recording in her journal,

      Much soothed & pleased with Tennyson's "In Memoriam." Only those who have suffered, as I do, can understand these beautiful poems"

      Queen Victoria’s Journal, RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 5 January 1862 (Princess Beatrice’s copies)

      This document was kept with other documents and various photographs, held together by a brass tablet with black cotton ribbon. A label attached to this object, possibly added after Queen Victoria's own death in 1901, states that the tablet and its contents was 'always placed on the Queen's writing table'. 

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