The mentally disabled hidden cousins of Queen Elizabeth II. Nerissa Jane Irene Bowes-Lyon (1919-1986, left) and Katherine Juliet Bowes-Lyon (1926-2014, right) were the daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, the brother of the Queen’s mother. Neither of the cousins ever learned how to talk. The 1963 edition of Burke’s Peerage listed Nerissa and Katherine as having died in 1940 and 1961 respectively, but in 1987 it was revealed that this was false and they had been placed in Earlswood Hospital for

Queen Elizabeth II had two cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who were kept out of the public eye due to their severe disabilities. Nerissa (1919–1986) and Katherine (1926–2014) were the daughters of John Herbert Bowes-Lyon (a brother of the Queen Mother) and his wife Fenella. Both sisters were born with severe intellectual disabilities, and in 1941, they were placed in the Royal Earlswood Hospital for mentally disabled people. Their existence was largely unknown to the public until it w