Kammerpiken

Appleton House, England, 1920: 21 year old Hilda Cooper has just received employment as a chamber maid. She takes great pride in removing stains from the Queen’s table cloth.

HMS Blenheim, Oslo harbour, 1926: Hilda Cooperlooks out at the Oslo Fjord and Ekebergåsen. It is an unfamiliar landscape. She has been employed as the Norwegian Queen Maud’s dressing assistant.

The Red Cross Hospital, Oslo, 1992: Hilda Cooper quietly passes away, 93 years old. A long life in the service of the Royal family is over. She never got to live with a man, she never had her own family. But she lived for the dresses, for her memories of the Queen, for her duty.