A group photo of several members of the Hessian family's household, including nanny Mary Ann Orchard in the middle and Madeleine Delacroix (b. Zanottti), seen on far left side, who later became head maid of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia. 1890.
Princess Victoria of Hesse recalled of her nanny:
I would like to say that our nurse Miss Orchard, called "Orchie" who came to us in 1865 always remained with my sister [p.33] Alix and accompanied her to Russia, only leaving her in 1905, when the weakness of age overtook her. Orchie's birthday was always a great fete. Several days before it she stirred her own birthday cake after an English recipe, at which performance we always managed to be present, and on the day Orchie gave a big tea, to which we were all invited.
(Mary Ann had returned to England and particularly Dorset at various times over the years. She was staying with her nephew Henry when she died in Essex on 8 August 1906 aged 76. Mary Ann’s will, in which she stated she was a Nurse in the Household of the Empress of Russia of St Petersburg Russia, recorded her many bequests. Her two god-daughters were mentioned, as were members of her brother’s families. Mary Ann was buried in East London and a beautiful Celtic cross headstone was erected by the children she had so lovingly nursed in Hesse. Her room, Orchie’s Room, at the Alexander Palace outside of St Petersburg remained preserved until the Revolution.Lili Dehn mentions the room in her memoir). [x]
Empress Alexandra's close friend and confident said of Madeleine:
The chief maid of the Empress was Madeleine Zanotti, of English and Italian parentage, whose home before she came to Tsarskoe Selo was in England. Madeleine was a was a woman of middle age, very clever, and as usual with one in her position, inclined to be tyrannical. Madeleine had charge of all the gowns and jewels of the Empress, and as I think I have related, she was often critical of her mistress's indolent habits in regard to correspondence, etc. A second maid was Tutelberg, "Toodles," a rather slow and quiet girl from the Baltic. She and Madeleine were mortal enemies, but they agreed on one thing at least, and that was that they would not wear caps and aprons. The Empress good-naturedly acquiesced and permitted simple black gowns and ribbon bows in the hair for her chief maids. There were three under maids, all Russians, and all perfectly devoted to the Imperial Family. These girls, who wore the regulation caps and white aprons, cared for the rooms of the Empress and the children. All the maids, when the Revolution came, remained faithful to the family, and one of them, as I shall tell later, performed the dangerous service of smuggling letters in and out of Siberia. One girl, Anna Demidova, shared the fate of the family in 1918. [x]
