Princess Hélène of Orléans

PRINCESS Hélène of Orléans (1871-1951) was one of a coterie of Victorian Sporting Dianas who embraced the fieldsports world with vigorous enthusiasm.

An imposing figure, standing at more than 6ft tall, she was born in exile in Twickenham in 1871. Apart from brief spells back in France she spent most of her formative years in Britain, where her mother, the Infanta Maria Isabel of Spain, was renowned for being the finest shot and rider of her day.noted. Hélène was regularly cited as being a fine shot, although her older sister was a crack one. Hélène was, “able to handle a gun with little less dexterity than her sister, Queen Amélie of Portugal, that acknowledged expert,” cooed . She was, however, a far bolder rider than her older sister, and became a noted, and devoted, foxhunter, as well as an adept angler and stalker.