trenchard

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish, LVO 1926-2018

_. The Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish, LVO, who has died aged 92, was a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and was the mistress, companion and carer of the poet Sir John Betjeman.

She was born 24 April, 1926, just three days younger than the Queen, and was a childhood friend of the then Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. She was the second, but eldest surviving daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, KG (1895-1950), by his wife the former Lady Mary Gascoyne-Cecil, GCVO (1895-1988), who served the Queen as Mistress of the Robes (senior Lady-in-Waiting) from the Coronation in 1953 until 1966.

Her brother, Andrew, was 11th Duke of Devonshire, KG, who died in 2004. Another brother, William, Marquess of Hartington, married Kathleen Kennedy, sister of the future US President, and was killed in the Second World War. A younger sister, Lady Anne Tree, died in 2010.

Lady Elizabeth was appointed an Exta Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret in 1960, and it was at Lady Elizabeth's Chelsea home in 1958 that the Princess met the young photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who two years later became her husband.

-=-

No comments: