Elizabeth Alice Wise, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, has died at 89. She passed away on August 2, 2026, at Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, Yorkshire.
Wise gave birth to her daughter Emma Charlotte at age 36, a child she said she had longed and prayed for. Nine days after birth, the infant contracted a severe viral infection that rapidly worsened.
Encephalitis and the decision to end her daughter's life
Wise recalled that the baby became very drowsy and fell into a deep coma within 24 hours. Doctors at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford diagnosed severe brain damage caused by encephalitis.
For nine months, Wise devoted every waking moment to caring for her daughter. Although Emma's hearing and sight functioned, the brain damage prevented her from processing stimuli or controlling her limbs, and feeding had to be done hopelessly slowly to stop her constantly vomiting.
Wise traveled as far as Australia seeking help from a specialist center. When it was found that the infection had destroyed three quarters of the child's brain, she decided to act. On June 3, 1974, she gave her daughter an overdose of the sleeping pill Mandrax, hoping she would die quickly, peacefully and without pain.
Court verdict and the Queen's support
At Reading Crown Court, Wise pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. The court gave her a one-year suspended sentence, with the judge calling the case extreme even among exceptional cases.
After the trial, Wise campaigned publicly to support parents of children with disabilities and spoke on BBC's The World This Weekend about whether doctors should keep such children alive artificially. Queen Elizabeth II showed understanding for her actions throughout and gave her substantial support.
Early life and royal lineage
Wise was born in 1936 at Kensington Palace, the youngest child of Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith and Princess May of Teck. Her grandmother was Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She spent her early years in Ottawa, Canada, before returning to England, and attended the 1947 wedding of Elizabeth and Prince Philip. A great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a third cousin of King Charles III, she lived out of the public eye in recent years.
