View source for Royal Order of Victoria and Albert

{{Short description|British honour}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox order
| title = Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
| image = [[Image:De vier graden van de Koninklijke Orde van Victoria en Albert.jpg|240px]]
| caption = The four grades of the Order
| awarded_by = <br />[[Queen Victoria]]
| type = [[Royal Family Order]]
| country = United Kingdom
| ribbon = White
| motto =
| day = 
| eligibility = Female members of the [[British royal family]] and female [[courtier]]s
| criteria = [[At Her Majesty's pleasure]]
|for = Personal service to the monarch
| status = Defunct; not awarded since the death of Queen Victoria
| head_title = 
| head = 
| head2_title = 
| head2 = 
| commander = 
| grades =
| former_grades = 
| post-nominals = VA
| date = 10 February 1862
| first_induction = 
| last_induction = 
| total = 
| recipients = 
| individual = 
| higher = 
| lower =
| image2 = [[File:Royal Order of Victoria and Albert - ribbon bar.gif|90px]]
| caption2 = Ribbon of the Order
}}

[[File:Queen Victoria by Bassano.jpg|thumb|240px|Portrait of [[Queen Victoria]] at her [[Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria|Golden Jubilee]], wearing the Sovereign's badge of the Order]]
[[File:Victoria, Princess Royal.jpg|thumb|240px|The German [[Victoria, Princess Royal|Empress Victoria]] wearing the Order, along with the Prussian [[Order of Louise]] (also an order only for women)]]

The '''Royal Order of Victoria and Albert''' is a British [[Royal Family Order]] instituted on 10 February 1862<ref>British Imperial Calendar, 1900</ref> by [[Queen Victoria]], and enlarged on 10 October 1864, 15 November 1865, and 15 March 1880. No award has been made since the death of Queen Victoria.

The order had four classes and was only granted to female members of the [[British royal family]] and female [[courtier]]s. For the first three classes, the badge consisted of a medallion of Queen Victoria and [[Albert, Prince Consort]], differing in the width and jewelling of the border as the classes descend, whilst the fourth substitutes a jewelled [[Royal Cipher|cipher]]. All four were surmounted by a crown, which was attached to a bow of white [[silk]] [[moiré]] ribbon.  The honour conferred no rank or title upon the recipient, but recipients were entitled to use the [[post-nominal letters]] "VA".

The last holder of the Order, [[Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone]], died in 1981.

==Recipients==
<!--ATTENTION: Please provide a RELIABLE source before adding any names to the following list. Self-published sources are not acceptable.-->
* 1863 [[Alexandra of Denmark|Alexandra, Princess of Wales]]
* [[Elizabeth Biddulph, Baroness Biddulph]] (Woman of the Bedchamber)<ref name="Cherrington-1925">{{cite book |last1=Cherrington |first1=Ernest Hurst |title=Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem |date=1925 |publisher=American Issue Publishing Company |location=Westerville, Ohio |page=343 |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHnaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA343 |access-date=1 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
*The Countess of Mount Edgcumbe{{clarify|date=November 2024}} (Lady of the Bedchamber)<ref name="Times30343" />
*[[Jane Spencer, Baroness Churchill]] (Lady of the Bedchamber)<ref name="Times36335" />
*1889: [[Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava]]<ref name="Times32607" />
* [[Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton]]<ref>Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.</ref>

a full list of recipients is published on pages 37&ndash;41 of  Royal Service Volume 2<ref>Risk, James; Pownall, Henry; Stanley, David; Tamplin, John (2001). Royal Service (Volume II). Lingfield, Surrey: Third Millennium.</ref>

==Sources==
*''[[Whitaker's Almanack]]'', 1893
*''[[British Imperial Calendar]]'', 1900, 1902
*''[[The Times]]''<!-- not very precise , dates? -->

==See also==
* [[Royal Family Order of George IV]]
* [[Royal Family Order of Edward VII]]
* [[Royal Family Order of George V]]
* [[Royal Family Order of George VI]]
* [[Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II]]
* [[Royal Family Order of Charles III]]
* [[List of awards honoring women]]

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="Times30343">
{{Cite newspaper The Times
|title=Obituary
|author=
|department=Obituary
|date=4 November 1881
|page=16
|issue=30343
|column=F
}}</ref>
<ref name="Times32607">
{{Cite newspaper The Times
|title=Court Circular
|author=
|department=Court and Social
|date=28 January 1889
|page=9
|issue=32607
|column=F
}}</ref>
<ref name="Times36335">
{{Cite newspaper The Times
|title=The Dowager Lady Churchill 
|author=
|department=Obituaries
|date=26 December 1900
|page=3
|issue=36335
|column=E
}}</ref>
}}

{{British Honours System}}
{{Orders of knighthood for women}}
{{Queen Victoria}}
{{Albert, Prince Consort}}

[[Category:British honours system]]
[[Category:Ladies of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert|*]]
[[Category:Orders, decorations, and medals for women]]
[[Category:Orders of chivalry of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Awards established in 1862]]
[[Category:1862 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Queen Victoria]]
[[Category:Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]]
[[Category:British royal family]]
[[Category:Royal family orders]]