General’s Widow, 86, Believed Killed : Art Treasures Lost in British Palace Fire

Fire swept through Hampton Court, King Henry VIII’s palace on the Thames River west of London, on Monday, burning out its south wing, damaging art treasures and killing one person, believed to be the 86-year-old widow of a general.

The blaze, which burned for four hours, sent the leaded roof of the palace’s three-story south wing crashing down into art galleries on the lower floors, causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Among the works damaged by smoke and water were two Tudor paintings by unknown artists--the 1520 “Field of the Cloth of Gold,” showing Henry VIII meeting the king of France, and the “Family Group,” depicting the king and his family.

Fire department officials said that the blaze may have been started by a candle.

Widow of General

They said it probably broke out in a top-floor apartment occupied by Lady Daphne Gale, widow of Gen. Richard Gale, once the deputy supreme commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization military forces. Lady Gale is assumed to have died. The local member of Parliament, Conservative Toby Jessel, explained that she was incapable of taking care of herself and “used candles in order to obtain light.”

Seven or eight other elderly residents were escorted to safety.

The top floor of the south wing had consisted of “grace and favor” apartments, allocated by the queen at low rentals to retired top diplomats, military officers and administrators in the former British Empire or their widows.

Firefighters said they succeeded in saving 90% of the palace, including Henry VIII’s Tudor buildings. However, the Cartoon Gallery was lost and half of the 45 rooms in the first-floor state apartments were damaged.

As flames billowed from the south wing, firemen and palace staff ferried dozens of paintings and other treasures from the galleries before the top floor collapsed. By chance, tapestries usually kept in the Cartoon Gallery had been removed for cleaning before the fire.

The fire crews contained the blaze before it could spread from the south wing. Wearing breathing apparatus, they crawled through the maze of rooms, flinging protective covers over priceless furniture.

The Department of the Environment said that Hampton Court, one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions, was not insured and will be repaired with public funds. The palace is owned by Queen Elizabeth II.

Later Monday, the queen visited the site of the blaze, picking her way through charred timbers on an inspection tour of the palace, which is set in 50 acres of lawns in Richmond, 12 miles west of London. She was accompanied by Prince Charles and by her sister, Princess Margaret. She called the damage “dreadful,” officials escorting her said.

The palace’s damaged south wing was built by the great 17th-Century architect Christopher Wren. The original structure was constructed in 1515 by Cardinal Wolsey and presented to Henry VIII in 1526.

“It’s a disaster,” the palace works officer, Gerald Drayton, said of the damage to the building. “What has been burned out is totally irreplaceable. It’s a Wren building. . . . You’re talking about millions of pounds and several years of work, but it will never be restored to what it was before.”

To English history buffs, the name of Hampton Court is synonymous with Tudor England, tennis and the story of Henry VIII’s unfortunate wives, two of whom he had executed.

About three years after moving in, Henry built a covered tennis court that is still used today.

Succeeding monarchs employed famous architects like Wren to improve the castle, and for two centuries, it was a popular royal residence until the death of King George II in 1760.

Ghosts of 3 Wives

Tourist lore has it that its only royal residents are the ghosts of three of Henry’s wives--Anne Boleyn, who was beheaded; Jane Seymour, who died in childbirth, and Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, who was also beheaded and from whom the Haunted Gallery built by Wolsey gets its name.

An official guide published after World War II by the Ministry of Works said of Howard that “her ghost has been seen and heard running along the gallery to the door of the chapel.”

“Only 16 months after her marriage, she had been accused of misconduct and arrested,” it went on, “but managed to evade her guards . . . and knowing that the king was hearing Mass in the chapel, she made a last desperate attempt to reach him and plead for mercy. She was intercepted and forced back, shrieking before she could enter the chapel. Three months later, she was beheaded.”

In the 19th Century, the palace was opened to the public by Queen Victoria so that her “darling lower classes” could visit.