Rosa 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' & Rosa 'The Alexandra Rose' - 20 July 2021

My eldest daughter’s name is Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward. The only simple part of her name is that she shares the middle name, Elizabeth with my Rosemary. My youngest granddaughter is Lauren Elizabeth Stewart.

The rest is a bit more complicated.

When I was born on August 32, 1942 (that’s what the Sanatorio Anchorena’s records would confirm) somehow either my parents wanted to hide that I may have been born before their wedding or I may believe my mother who said my father forgot to register me so my birth certificate birthday and in all my other documents has my birth at April 18, 1943.

Alexandra Elizabeth Waterhouse-Hayward

My father was called George Waterhouse Hayward so when it came to register me (was that April 18, 1943) he told the registrar that my name was George Alexander Waterhouse-Hayward.

In a nationalistic Argentina of the time the registrar cited a problem. My name could not be in a foreign language. So I became Jorge Alejandro.

I am Alejandro because my godfather was Alejandro Ariosa. He was the second husband of my aunt Ines Barber. Because she was divorced from Ralph Barber, my aunt who adored my mother could not be my godmother as extremely Catholic prohibitions in Argentina then. My godmother became her daughter Inesita, who of course was my first cousin (my fave first cousin).

With my first name and middle name out of the way the man objected to the Waterhouse-Hayward. My father slipped a coima (Argentine for a bribe) under the table and told the man that Waterhouse was part of my surname and that it had a hyphen I the middle.

When my eldest daughter was born on August 17 1968 Rosemary decided that she should be named Alexandra. Unfortunately while her legal name is still that nobody calls her Alexandra. From the moment she was a little girl in the Mexico City suburb of Arboledas where we lived her friends called her Ale (pronounced Ah- leh). She has been Ale ever since.

As soon as my Rosemary found out that David Austin had come out with an English Rose called Princess Alexandra of Kent it was purchased. Ditto she bought the lovely single rose (rosarian term for roses that have only five petals. Species roses also have five petals except this one) called The Alexandra Rose.

Both were in bloom today so I took advantage. 

My special birthday on August 31, 2020