Rachel Leila Douglas-Home, suo jure Baroness Dacre 1929-2012

_.Rachel Leila Douglas-Home, suo jure (27th) Baroness Dacre, holder of a peerage created by writ in 1321, died on Christmas Day, 2012, aged 83.

She was born the Hon Rachel Leila Brand, 24 Oct, 1929, elder daughter of the 4th Viscount Hampden (1900-65), who was also 26th Baron Dacre, by his wife the former Leila Seely (d 1976). She married in 1951, the playwright, the Hon William Douglas-Home (1912-92), a younger son of the 13th Earl of Home (1873-1951), by his wife Lady Lilian Lambton (d 1966), dau of the 4th Earl of Durham. Her husband was a younger brother of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister 1963-4, &c.

Her father died in 1965, and was succeeded in the viscountcy of Hampden by his younger brother and the barony of Dacre fell into abeyance between Rachel and her sister Tessa. The abeyance was terminated in her favour in 1970.

The peerage now devolves upon Lady Dacre's only son, the Hon James Douglas-Home, who was born 16 May, 1952, who married in 1979, the former Christine Stephenson [died 18 May, 2008], and has a daughter, Emily, born 7 Feb, 1983.


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