A NEW Forest man has failed in his bid to win permission to exhume his grandfather's body in an attempt to prove he has royal blood.

Former New Forest district councillor and mushroom farmer Nick Locock wanted to prove that Henry Locock was the secret lovechild of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise.

But the Arches Court of Canterbury, the highest church court in the land, has refused permission for exhumation, which precludes a DNA test.

According to Locock family legend, Henry Locock was the illegitimate son of the 19-year-old Princess Louise and British Army Captain Walter Stirling.

Born in 1867, Henry was adopted by the son of Queen Victoria's gynaecologist, Sir Charles Locock.

Henry Locock died in 1907 after falling off a railway station platform in Canada where it is thought he was attempting to track down his true father. His body was buried in a churchyard in Sevenoaks, Kent.

The princess enjoyed a Bohemian lifestyle and died in 1939 at the age of 91.

Nick Locock made an application to the Court of Arches in his bid to collect his grandfather's DNA.

He wanted to compare it with DNA from the remains of Tsarina Alexandra, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, which would prove the royal link.

A similar request had been refused by a church consistory court in 2002 on the grounds he had failed to show there were special circumstances to break with the normal procedure of allowing bodies to rest in peace. That ruling has now been backed by the Arches Court.

It said Mr Locock had failed to show there was a real likelihood of a connection having existed between his grandfather and Princess Louise.

Neither had he proved an exception should be made for the exhumation.

Mr Locock, of Whitsbury, said he had been motivated by historical reasons because a biography was being written about Sir Charles.

Asked for his reaction he told the Daily Echo: "Just one of disappointment - and surprise because I thought that we were going to get it."

First published: November 12