The station saw the first of many royal visitors in 1843, when Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, greeted Louis Philippe of France at Gosport. Queen Victoria visited the station six days later when she accompanied the king on his return to France. Following Albert's purchase of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight the following year, he negotiated the construction of an extension of the line through the town ramparts to a private station, the Royal Victoria Station, built in Royal Clarence Yard for the use of Royal family and household, who would arrive here for the Solent crossing. For the next fifty years, Victoria and her party landed here for her summer holiday at Osborne. The private station was last used for passengers following Victoria's death in 1901, when her coffin, accompanied by her mourning family, was brought across the Solent for the last time. Following Victoria's death, her successor, Edward VII, found Osborne an inconvenient white elephant, and gave the house to the nation.