Michael Jamieson Bristow 
HM QUEEN MAUD OF NORWAY (1869-1938)
Born: 0.20am London (England), November 26 1869 - Died: 0.25am London (England), November 20 1938
Ascension of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud: November 20 1905
Coronation: June 22 1906
Funeral (Buried): December 08 1938
Queen Maud's neuralgia and bronchitis continued to give so much trouble that in the autumn of 1938 she travelled to Appleton House (built in 1863) on the Sandringham Estate with a view to escaping the strain of the Norwegian winter. However, on November 13 King Haakon was notified that she had been taken into a private clinic in London, and the situation was so serious that the doctors were asking him to come. He was able to visit her every day, and the first report suggested that an operation had been successful. But Queen Maud was very weak, and in pain. A little after midnight on the 20th, she died peacefully.
Crown Prince Olav (who was born at Appleton House in 1903) and Bishop Berggrav left at once for London, and the coffin was removed to Marlborough House, where British Guards officers kept watch over it through the night. next day it was taken through streets lined with respectful onlookers to Victoria Station, followed by a cortège of Norwegian, British and other members of royal families from the extensive family connections which had meant so much to the dead Queen.
The coffin was taken to Oslo in the battleship Royal Oak, and lay in state in the chapel in Akerhus Castle, where several thousand people filed past it. The funeral service was held in St Saviour's Church on December 08, and later a dignified mausoleum was built at Akerhus.
In spite of the wave of sympathy expressed in letters and floral tributes from all over the country, this was inevitably a heavy and painful time for the royal family. Appleton House no longer exists. Two days after Queen Maud's interment King Haakon wrote to King George VI and informed him that the time had come to return Appleton House (where Crown Prince Olav was born in 1903) to the British Royal Family. The Queen had had the property as long as she had wanted, just as the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) had said she could when she was given it in 1896. Crown Prince Olav went over a little later to arrange the formalities of the transfer. For many years the house stood unusued. Its last known inhabitants were King George VI and the Queen Mother, who lived in the house during a visit to Norfolk during World War II. A 1968 newspaper article with the headline "The Queen's empty house" reported that a large anti-air raid structure had been constructed around the property during World War II and that this was unattractive and expensive to remove. In addition it would have been extremely costly to restore the property to a habitable state again. Under the circumstances, reopening Appleton House was not considered a feasible option. It was demolished in July 1984. King Haakon reveals something of his own feelings in a New Year letter to his nephew in England: 'Happily I accepted Olav and Märtha's invitation to spend Xmas at Skaugum, as it was too much for me when I found presents for me from darling Aunt Maud and I realised then how impossible it would have been if I had been alone, and the dear grandchildren helped me a lot to think of them and not ponder on my own sad thoughts.'
KINGS OF NORWAY
KING HAAKON VII (born August 03 1872) (November 25 1905 - September 21 1957)
KING OLAV V (born July 02 1903) (September 21 1957 - January 17 1991)
KING HARALD V (born February 21 1937) (since January 17 1991)