24 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Death of 
George III 
and his 
Queen. 
was dependent on the good offices of interested friends, and on the 
voluntary work of such of its alumni as were stationed abroad. 
With the death of Queen Charlotte in Kew Palace on November 
17th, 1818, and the subsequent closing of the building, Kew no longer 
remained a place of residence of the reigning monarch. 
George III. had not himself occupied the house since 
1806, but his Queen and family had occasionally 
stayed there. Now, however, the garden lost that close 
interest which their presence on the spot had naturally 
gained for it. The King died in 1820, but as he had for some years 
lived at Windsor, nearly blind and wholly insane, his death had but 
little influence on the fortunes of Kew. Of more immediate concern 
to it was the death of Sir Joseph Banks in the same year. Kew 
was thereby robbed of its most important and influential friend. 
Without possessing any official position, he had for nearly fifty years 
been the chief adviser of successive members of the Royal Family 
in matters relating to Kew. Much of its fame and efficiency in the 
last years of the eighteenth century and the early ones of the nine- 
teenth must be ascribed to him. 
