‘Nanny Green’ is believed to be the Nanny that was first hired by the then Prince of Wales, George, to take care of his two sons. Her identity is protected and aside from the possible surname of ‘Green’ the rest is speculation.
Having lost her own children to illnesses, she latched on to David who apparently looked a great deal like her lost son. She was mentally unwell and did wind up in a hospital which is why her name is protected.
Nanny Green adored David, so much that she really did want him all to herself. When David and Bertie were to be presented to their parents, she would pinch David hard enough to make him wail and cry so that his quiet loving parents would ask her to take him away to the nursery. She repeated the pinching, twisting and even striking of the boys nearly every evening. Both boys were in fact covered in bruises under their clothes due to this constant physical abuse from their supposed carer. Their parents, unused to the sound of wailing children continued to tell her to take them back to the nursery and did not think to check on them, even avoiding the nursery for fear of further wailing.
As time went on and her twisted adoration for David grew, she would often skip feeding Bertie, leaving him to go hungry, actually starving him on multiple occasions. Leaving him in his leg splints which the boy could not take off on his own and taking David elsewhere, leaving Bertie alone and unfed. This is what many believe led to the stomach problems that plagued him throughout his life. Developing an ulcer significant enough to have him discharged from his beloved Navy. Some pictures of Bertie as a toddler show him being unnaturally small and thin too.
May and George were themselves seemingly cold parents, May didn’t like the idea of holding her children after enduring difficult pregnancies and without the careful hand of a warm nanny, Bertie was shockingly deprived of any reassuring, familial or even remotely pleasant physical contact in his early childhood. In fact, there is little suggestion that Albert’s good behaviour was rewarded nay even acknowledged by his supposed nanny. The complete emotional and indeed physical neglect resulted in huge tantrum outbursts from Bertie and it was a temper that stuck with him right until the end. Naturally, these tantrums would then be excuse for further punishment.
When she was forced to actually take care of Bertie in his infancy, she would take him out in an ‘unsprung’ pram and push him across the uneven grounds of Sandringham, such an act would mean that the pram shook harshly for as long as potentially two hours at a time, of constant rattling. This would quite often make him unwell and make him cry so much that he wasn’t even presented to his parents the same evening.
While there is no official record of it, there is much speculation as to whether or not Nanny Green actually sexually abused Albert as many at the time put that down to the possible cause of his stammer- though that is still up for much discussion and without any evidence it will have to remain as speculation. Of course we are much more aware of the conditions around the development of a stammer now, but the notion that it was suggested as a possible cause is startling.
The concerns around Nanny Green’s abuse were raised by her successor, ‘Lalla’ and Nanny Green was dismissed that very same day. She had not spent a single day away from David since she was hired and after a week of being away from the prince, she had a breakdown and was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
Albert, since deprived of any encouragement, warm contact and so used to his punishments, began to completely accept harsh punishments as something he just had to endure. Believing himself inferior to David whom was adored by their first nanny, who in many ways was supposed to be a mothering figure, he became cripplingly shy, his stammer and complete lack of support causing him to draw even further in on himself. In many ways, Nanny Green was perhaps the most damaging influence on his life.
Sources--
De Vries “Royal Mistress”
Kathryn Hughes “Royal Nannies, past and present”
Lady Colin Campbell “The Queen Mother”
Anne Edwards “Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor”
