What were Queen Victoria's last words?

Queen Victoria, 1819-1901

"Bertie."

The long-reigning was distraught after the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, and it seems his was still foremost in her thoughts many decades later.

It was in the frosty early-evening darkness of a January day in 1901 that, in her bedroom at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria prepared to leave this life to join, as she devoutly believed, her beloved Consort, Albert, in the next. Albert's portrait was, as always, beside the bed of the Queen ... Osborne House was filled almost to overflowing with the family as the end drew near, children and grandchildren. Among the latter was the grand old lady's hot-headed grandson, the Kaiser, Wilhelm the Second of Germany, whose country was to be at war with Britain in thirteen years' time ...

The unhappy Boer War was still on, though drawing towards its close. The Kaiser had incensed his grandmother by sending a congratulatory telegram to President Kruger of the Transvaal. Now it was that same President Kruger who sent to Osborne House a warm-hearted wish for the Queen's "prompt recovery." Victoria seemed immortal, both to friend and foe.

But immortal she was not. She whispered faintly that Turi, her Pomeranian dog, be brought to her. Turi came and went. Then, as the Prince of Wales hovered nearby, the old Queen uttered her last word. "Bertie", she whispered, and her 60-year-old son who had lived in almost mortal terror of her all of his life, buried his face in his hands and wept. The Edwardian age was only a couple of hours away. Oddly enough it was the German Kaiser who, having been admitted to his dying grandmother's bedroom, was allowed to share with the Queen's doctor the privilege of supporting her on her pillow. This he did for over two hours, unable to change arms since his left arm was withered. In the crook of the Kaiser's arm, Queen Victoria died.