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Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live at Buckingham Palace after succeeding to the throne in 1837. But the new queen inherited a home that was unfinished, lacking essential fixtures like doors and sinks, and notoriously cold. The chimneys belched smoke into the rooms where fires were lit, and carpets and curtains were missing.

Eliza Jane Thornton, Housekeeper from 1855-1893

She would supervise the maids as they dusted the furniture, swept carpets and rugs, and attended to fires and candlesticks.  

That there is a right and wrong way of doing things applies even to so simple and prosaic an act as that of cleaning a bedroom candlestick

The Housemaid: her duties and how to perform them, 1870

As well as being vigilant over other areas of the Palace, including the servants’ own rooms, one of Miss Thornton’s most important duties was to manage the storeroom. This would be filled with preserves, cakes, biscuits and linens, which Miss Thornton would keep in repair and supply new when required. On 12 May 1856, she wrote to the then Master of the Household, Lieutenant Colonel Biddulph, to inform him that the ‘linen has been again gone over, and the deficiency [of towels and dusters] remains the same’.

Miss Thornton also ensured that Victoria and Albert’s cherished moral values were upheld by 

…enforc[ing] civility, prosperity of language and general decency of behaviour, herself of course setting the example

Instructions for a Housekeeper at Buckingham Palace by George Sackville-West, Lord Chamberlain of the Household (1841-1846), 1844.  

Victoria valued her female staff and often expressed her gratitude with gifts. In 1856, she presented Miss Thornton with a silver sugar basin worth £15. Today, this would be equivalent to spending over £1,500! In 1859, she also gave her a silver tea pot. 

Some of the most treasured items in the Royal Collection were gifts from Victoria to her staff, including miniature portraits of the queen set into jewellery. 

Marianne Skerrett, Head Dresser from 1837-1862

Miss Skerrett was one of Queen Victoria’s most respected members of household staff. She was appointed Head Dresser to Victoria in 1837 and retired with a pension in 1862. 

The Head Dresser was responsible for the organisation of Victoria’s wardrobe. Miss Skerrett kept an inventory of her clothing, scrupulously inspecting each item, including bonnets, gloves, caps, cloaks and jewellery, to check for dirt or damage. If anything needed repair, she would hand it over to the wardrobe maids. 

Miss Skerrett would also ensure that everything was properly arranged or stored, ready for when Victoria awoke or went to bed, and that she had everything she needed for when she travelled.

Upon Miss Skerrett’s death aged 94, Victoria wrote very fondly of her in her diaries: 

She came to me at my accession & was most useful at the head of my Wardrobe, ordering everything, looking over my bills &c, & arranging with the different artists. She was quite a superior person, very clever, read enormously, had an intense passion for animals, & was a great friend of Landseer’s, & of many of the artists

Entry from Queen Victoria's Diary, 4 August 1887. 

Part of Miss Skerrett's role involved corresponding with artists for sittings and helping with the purchase of paintings. On 8 April 1842, she wrote to Edwin Landseer to arrange a meeting between the artist and Victoria. 

HM has desired me to say that Tuesday would be more convenient that Friday as she is not sure about the engagements of that day

Extract from a letter by Miss Skerrett to Edwin Landseer, 8 April 1842.

Perhaps they would discuss Landseer’s upcoming painting of the couple (below) in sumptuous historical costume for the fancy-dress ball at Buckingham Palace. The ball was held the following month, when Victoria writes in her diary that she watched Landseer ‘beginning to paint the sketches of us’. Learn more about Landseer's painting in our Collection Online. 

Staff in the Royal Mews

During the reign of George IV, the Royal Mews as it exists today – a quadrangle of stables, coach houses and staff accommodation – was built at Buckingham Palace. Since then, every monarch has used the Riding School to practice for ceremonial occasions. But it was during the reign of Queen Victoria that the Mews experienced its most vibrant period of history. 

Victoria was known for her love of animals. In April 1838, she exchanged letters with her uncle, King Leopold of the Belgians, about her favourite horses, calling them her ‘darlings’:

...I have got two darlings, if I may use that word. They are, both of them, quite perfect in every sense of the word; very handsome, full of spirit, delightful easy-goers, very quiet, and never shying at anything. Is this not perfection?

Letter from Queen Victoria to King Leopold of the Belgians, 4 April 1838

Victoria often rode for up to three hours a day, sometimes accompanied by her children, who were all taught at the Royal Mews Riding School. In the diary of William Coman, a weekly helper at the Mews in 1844, he writes of taking the young Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), then only three years old, out riding. He was 'very good' according to Coman. Princess Beatrice, as seen in the photograph below, had already begun her riding lessons aged two years old. 

A working village

The Mews was, and still is, a living community – with generations of staff and their families living on site. By the 1850s, new accommodation was built for the nearly 200 members of staff and their families. 

During this time, the Royal Mews carried out many of the same responsibilities as it does today. There were around 50 weekly helpers, 20 grooms and 12 coachmen working there at any given time to facilitate the royal family’s travel by horse-drawn carriage. 

Edward Miller, the State Coachman, cared for and exercised the 25 saddle horses used by the royal family. Mr Miller made sure they were well-trained, calm and obedient. One of his key training objectives was to familiarise the horses with the sounds of drums and bands. 

‘It is no light task…,’ said Mr Miller

...to take a State coach drawn by entire horses down a slope like St. James’s street. The State coach weighs four tons, it has no brake, not even a drag. To keep the horses in proper check with bands playing, banners waving, and people cheering, needs the exercise of all one’s steady care and cool nerve

The Queen's Coachman, Interesting Reminiscences, October 1898

This photograph features William Whaley, who served Victoria as an Outrider or Postillion, which involved riding a harnessed horse that was pulling a carriage, often in ceremonial contexts. Born on 28 January 1840 in Shoreditch, London, he started working at the Royal Mews aged 13 years old. Whaley was awarded the Victoria Faithful Service medal in 1886 in honour of his 33 years of service to the Crown. He retired in 1901 at the age of 61.   

The Royal Mews School

In 1855, Queen Victoria set up a school for the children of families who worked at the Mews. Classes were conducted in two small rooms, where children were ‘carefully taught, and passed their examination very creditably’, as we learn from an inspector's report in the 1870s. The school flourished over the next 20 years, marking an important chapter in the Mews' history.