by Susan Flantzer

Read about others who served Queen Victoria at Unofficial Royalty: Queen Victoria’s Inner Circle Index.

Marianne Skerrett was the Head Dresser and Wardrobe-Woman to Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1862.

Marianne Skerrett was the daughter of a British Army officer who owned a plantation in Bermuda. Her uncle had been sub-treasurer to Queen Charlotte, Victoria’s paternal grandmother. Her great-grandfather William Popple had been a Governor of Bermuda. Marianne was born in 1793, so she was 44-years-old when the 18-year-old Victoria became queen. She was very intelligent, extremely well-read and fluent in Danish, French, and German. Recommended to Queen Victoria by Louisa Petty-FitzMaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne, a Lady of the Bedchamber, Marianne became one of Queen Victoria’s two dressers in 1837 and eventually became head dresser.

As the head dresser, Marianne, who was called Skerrett by Queen Victoria, was responsible for Victoria’s wardrobe. She oversaw the ordering of all the queen’s clothing, shoes, hats, gloves, and undergarments. In addition, Marianne kept the wardrobe accounts and was diligent in checking all the bills to make sure no one tried to cheat Victoria. She was also responsible for supervising the hairdressers, dressmakers, and the seamstresses who kept the royal wardrobe in good repair.

Marianne and Victoria had a lot in common. They were both intelligent, loved animals, spoke several languages, read and discussed books, and shared an interest in paintings and painters. Victoria would come to rely on Marianne to help with the purchase of paintings and in corresponding with artists. After the departure in 1842 of Baroness Louise Lehzen, Victoria’s former governess and then advisor and companion, Marianne took on some of her duties, becoming somewhat of a secretary and doing whatever Victoria needed her to do.

After 25 years of serving Queen Victoria, Marianne retired in 1862 at the age of 69. She was anxious to return to the world beyond the palace walls. She wrote about her retirement, “This year I shall hope and trust to be able to say and do to a certain extent what I have so long been wanting to do…” Marianne received a pension of £70 and went to live with her sister in the Marylebone section of London.

Marianne Skerrett remained in contact with Queen Victoria, visiting her and writing to her, until her death in 1887 at the age of 94. She bequeathed to Queen Victoria a painting by the British painter William Hogarth, The Popple and Ashley Families, a colonial family in Bermuda, one of which had been Marianne’s grandmother (the child in the painting). The painting is currently in the Royal Collection. Upon hearing that Marianne Skerrett had died Queen Victoria wrote in her journal: “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.”

Recommended Book – Serving Queen Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard

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Works Cited

Baird, Julia. Victoria The Queen . Random House, 2016.

. Random House, 2016. Erickson, Carolly. Her Little Majesty: The Life of Queen Victoria.Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Hubbard, Kate. Serving Victoria: Life In The Royal Household. Harper Collins Publishers, 2012.