Lena Schäfer 12 years older than Catherine
Lena Schäfer, the German governess who became Catherine's lifelong companion, was 12 years her senior and arrived when Catherine was around 16.
Snapshot · Empire: World History
370. The First British Indians: Saving Jews In Nazi Germany (Ep 2)
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Jun 21, 2026
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Lena Schäfer Arrives: The Beginning of a Fifty-Year Love Story
At 11:02 · chapter starts 10:25
Queen Victoria, who trusted German governesses above all others for their discipline, brought Lena Schäfer into the Duleep Singh household. Lena is described as kind and gentle — exactly the stable maternal presence that the traumatised, orphaned Catherine craved at sixteen. What begins as dependence transforms into something more durable: when Catherine goes up to Somerville College Oxford, Lena comes too, despite there being younger siblings at home who arguably needed a governess more. Anita Anand reads the relationship carefully — she spent over a decade with these women's archives — and concludes that what kindles at Somerville and continues for forty years is 'a loving relationship.' Whether sexual or not, it is acknowledged by Sophia, a notorious prude, who uses the word 'intimate' and never once questions the fact that Catherine and Lena are a package deal.
A Love Story Across 50 Years
Lena Schäfer arrived as a governess when Catherine was around 16. Within years she was following her to Oxford, across Europe, and finally to Germany — and the two were never separated again for five decades. Whether sexual or not, their relationship was a love story acknowledged even by Sophia, a notorious prude.
Somerville College founded 1879
Somerville College Oxford, where Catherine and Bamba studied, was founded in 1879; women could sit exams but were not formally awarded degrees until 1920.
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