Alice Trolle-Wachtmeister

Countess Alice Viktoria Trolle-Wachtmeister (9 May 1926 – 26 June 2017) was a courtier at the Royal Court of Sweden from the 1970s to 2015, serving as chief court mistress from 1994 to 2015.

Early life and education Alice Viktoria Tornérhielm was born on 9 May 1926 in Helsingborg, the daughter of Erik Gunnar Tornérhielm (1895–1969), a squire from , and the Danish-born Ellen Valentiner-Branth (1897–1965). As a child, Trolle-Wachtmeister was often ill and lived for a long time in a sanatorium with a nurse in her mother's home country, Denmark. When she returned home to Gedsholm outside Helsingborg, she spoke only Danish. During her early school years, she lived in a boarding house in Helsingborg. Seventeen years old in 1943, she followed her mother's example and joined the Swedish Women's Voluntary Defence Organization. After school graduation in 1945, she undertook home education which her father regarded as his daughter's military service. Then followed a nursing course with internship at a children's hospital, a practical social course in Copenhagen 1945–1947, a period in an English family and a time as a hostess. As such, she was the highest ranking non-royal woman in Sweden.

Trolle-Wachtmeister was chairman of the municipal council from 1964 to 1976 and a member of the Temperance Board (Nykterhetsnämnden) and of the county council's Social Welfare Board (Socialnämnd) from 1970.

On 23 February 2012, along with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Speaker of the Parliament Per Westerberg and the Marshal of the Realm Svante Lindqvist, Countess Trolle-Wachtmeister was presented the newborn Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland. According to tradition, the Mistress of the Robes and the other officials are required to witness that the second in the line of succession to the throne is indeed the child of the Crown Princess, rather than a changeling. She then attended the announcement of the Princess's names on 24 February.

Personal life In 1949, Alice Tornérhielm married Count (9 January 1923 – 9 November 2023), the son of first hovjägmästare, Count and Hilla-Brita (née Trolle).

50px H. M. The King's Medal, 12th size gold medal worn around the neck on a chain of gold (silver-gilt) (1990) 50px H. M. The King's Medal, 12th size gold (silver-gilt) medal worn around the neck on the Order of the Seraphim ribbon (1983)

Foreign

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau (11 May 1987)

Order of the White Rose of Finland Order of the Aztec Eagle Brazilian Congress' Order Order of the Sacred Treasure