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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Memorial works

Following Albert’s premature death, Victoria commissioned the creation of photographs and decorative objects that memorialised her beloved husband

      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

      A four page document containing a transcript by Queen Victoria of 'In Memoriam' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The transcript is written on paper with a thick black border.

      Following the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, 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' (RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 5 Jan 1862).

      • Creator(s)

        Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1819-1901) (author)

        After Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-92) (author)

        Subject(s)

        Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-92)

      • 17.5 x 11.2 cm (first page) (whole object)

      • A label on a brass tablet (RCIN 55344) suggests that the document was 'always placed on the Queen's writing table'

      • Subject(s)
        • Language, Linguistics and Literature
          • Literature
            • Poetry
        • Social sciences
          • Ethnology
            • Mourning
        Object type(s)
          • printed & manuscript material
            • manuscripts
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