The tragic tale of our secret princess
Harrowden Hall (courtesy of Wellingborough Golf Club!
The greatest joy of writing this column is the research. Naturally, because of time, I can never do as much as I would like and I can’t always travel to the places I write about.
But for this week’s feature I travelled to Great Harrowden and a wee bit further . . . to Hawaii!
In case the Chron worries about expenses, worry not I was there anyway, so I won’t be claiming the air fare.
I have longed to visit Waikiki to investigate someone who connects Hawaii with Northamptonshire: Princess Victoria Ka’iulani, the last heir to the Hawaiian throne, who was educated in Northamptonshire.
She came here in September 1889 when, strangely, nothing was reported in the two local newspapers.
Nothing, that is, until 10 years later when on page six of the Northampton Mercury of March 24, 1899, under the headline Death of Wellingborough’s Princess, it announced: “Princess Ka’iulani, who has been suffering from rheumatism of the heart, died on March 6, 1899”.
It went on to explain why the papers had been silent about her time in the county: “Political agitation, if nothing worse, was rampant in Hawaii and it was thought best to keep secret the whereabouts the Princess. For years her identity was unknown save the head mistress, it was not even suspected.”
Princess Victoria Ka’iulani was registered at Mrs Sharp’s School for Young Ladies at Harrowden Hall, Great Harrowden, Wellingborough, under the name Victoria Cleghorn and was known as Viki.
Why Cleghorn? Her father Archibald Cleghorn, a Scottish businessman, had married Princess Miriam Likelike, sister of King David Kalakaua of Hawaii. Vike was born in Honolulu on October 16, 1875. Since her uncle and an aunt, who both ruled, had no children, Princess Vike was named as Heir Apparent to the royal Kanaka Maoli dynasty.
The king decided that Princess Vike should be educated in England and so on May 10, 1889, accompanied by her father and her half-sister, Annie, Vike left Honolulu for San Francisco on the first leg of her long journey that took her across America and then the Atlantic.
In late summer she arrived to take up her place at school in Harrowden Hall.
Vike adapted well to life in Northamptonshire. She was an excellent student, good at art and fluent in English, French and German and even enjoyed her first Harrowden winter.
“We have had cold weather,” she wrote to the queen. “I rather like it when you can roast yourself by the fire!”
In 1890 she was confirmed in Great Harrowden Church where she worshipped regularly.
She made life-long friends at school and one day, while she and her best friend Alice were playing the piano, she had a telegram with news of a rebellion in Hawaii. The monarchy had fallen to a group of American businessmen supported by the United States Government. Vike was called home.
En route she diverted to Washington where, strengthened by her English education, she made a confident, but unsuccessful, appeal to the President for the restoration of her aunt as queen.
She returned to Northamptonshire and lived with Mrs Sharp, her old headmistress, at The Yews in Burton Latimer, the place she called “My dear little home” in a letter to the deposed queen.
But after eight years away she knew that her rightful place was in Hawaii.
During the time of what Vike called “her exile”, there were attempts to crown her as queen, but when she returned to her homeland in 1897 it was too late.
Hawaii was annexed in 1898 to the USA becoming the 50th State of the Union in 1959.
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