Interesting to note the historical irony in that Prince Albert, Prince Consort, Queen Victoria's husband, died on December 14, 1861 at the age of 42.
Officially the cause was given as typhoid fever, but it was more likely stomach problems plus chronic overwork
Then the daughter Prince Albert called "the beauty of the family", Princess Alice of Hesse and by Rhine, reposed on the very SAME day, in 1878 !
Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, the greatest court painter of all time
Readers of 19th century history may recall how Queen Victoria used to grieve excessively about the loss of her virtuous husband. But imagine how December 14 became an even sadder occasion every year from then on til the Queen's death in January 1901.
Princess Alice was also a hard worker, caring for the sick and poor. It is thought that her early repose was also due partly to low immune system due to stress. Though the immediate cause was believed to have been diphtheria, as a result of inadvertently giving her son Ernst a kiss.
Queen "Victoria noted the coincidence of the dates of Albert and Alice's deaths as "almost incredible and most mysterious"<[quotation from wikipedia]
It will be remembered that Princess Alice of Hesse was the mother of Princesses Victoria, Ella [later to become Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Russia], Irene and Alix [later to marry the Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich and become the last Tsaritsa of Russia - at least so far, up to the present]
Prince Ernst married 1st Ducky, daughter of Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovich, only daughter of Tsar Alexander II. That marriage was a disaster from the start, and later Ducky [Victoria Melita] married her cousin Kirill Vladimirovich, who would go on to claim to be the heir to the Romanov throne after the Russian Revolution.