In 1918, he [the Prince of Wales] told his mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, that Mary was risking “complete ruination” and he feared that no man would ever “see enough of her to fall in love with her and take her” – he was aware that George V, although by all accounts devoted to his only daughter, kept her on a tight leash.
The Prince wished she could be allowed to “dress decently and cultivate a proper chic straight figure…” In 1919, he fulminated against his father for “imprisoning her at court, not letting her lead a normal life and ruining her chances of getting married or even existing as a girl of 23 should do!”
The Prince tried hard to find her a husband, pressing Queen Mary to help him, but to no avail. There was a suggestion that the Princess might marry the Earl of Dalkeith, heir to the Duke of Buccleuch. Some say that he rushed into marriage with the highly promiscuous Mollie Lascelles in April 1921, in order to escape this prospect.
Instead, aged 25, she married Viscount Lascelles, heir to the Earl of Harewood, a rich Yorkshireman with a Distinguished Service Order, who, besides set to inherit the great treasures of Harewood House, had once spotted his eccentric great-uncle, the Marquess of Clanricarde, in the St James’s Club, spent half an hour with him, and as a result inherited his fortune in art and property (worth £2.5 million). Born in 1882, Lascelles was 15 years older than the Princess. Here too the rumours abound. It was suggested that he only married in order to win a bet.
Hearing of the engagement, the Prince of Wales said to Freda that he hoped it was not “too much arranged”, was glad his sister was finally to escape from the “Buckhouse prison”, and added: “Of course Lascelles is too old for her and not attractive… But he’s rich, and I’m afraid that is a very important thing for poor Mary. I hope to God he’ll make her happy.”
