Princess Alice’s 1938 Saudi Photos Go on Show in London

An exhibition in London is displaying rare historical photographs taken by Princess Alice, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, during her 1938 visit with her husband Alexander Cambridge to meet King Abdulaziz. The show runs until November 14th, 2025, at the Royal Geographical Society, hosted by the Saudi Embassy in the United Kingdom in cooperation with the King Abdulaziz Public Library.

On the three-week trip, Princess Alice documented landscapes, cities and daily life across Saudi Arabia in a collection of 324 photographs, with some among the earliest colour images captured in the country. Princess Alice was the first member of the British royal family to visit Saudi Arabia and the only one to meet the country’s founder, King Abdulaziz, according to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. She arrived in Jeddah aboard the HMS Enterprise on February 25th and was received by the future King Faisal, then a prince.

Her itinerary included Makkah, Riyadh and Jeddah, as well as Al Ahsa and Alkhobar. In the Eastern Province, she visited the Dammam No. 7 oil well on March 17th, shortly after oil production began there on March 4th, 1938. Recalling her first meeting with King Abdulaziz, Princess Alice later wrote: “he was a huge man, a great gentleman with a most engaging manner.” She is also recorded to have left the Kingdom “with many regrets at the conclusion of a lovely and interesting journey."