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Friday, January 08, 2021

William Ashe Dymoke Windham 1926-2021

 _. William Ashe Dymoke Windham, of Glasbury, Powys, who died 5 January, 2021, aged 94, was a scion of the Smith-Bowyer baronets. He was born 2 April, 1926, the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Steuart Windham [1873-1958], of Shefford, Bedfordshire, and his wife the former Marjorie Russell Dymock [d 1971]. 

Windham was a British Olympian, having rowed for GB at the 1952 Olympic Games.

The family descend from the Windhams of Fellbrigg, Norfolk, and the Windhams of Waghen, Yorkshire. An ancestress, Anne Windham Bowyer married one Sir William Smijth, 7th Baronet, and descendants adopted variations of these surnames down the generations, becoming Bowyer-Smijth, Bowyer-Smyth, Smijth-Windham, before finally and sensibly settling with Windham in the 1880s.

He was a great-great grandson of the 6th Duke of Bedford, of Woburn Abbey.

He married 9 June, 1956, Alison Audrey Primrose Curtis [b 23 Feb 1928], scion of the Curtis baronets, daughter of Maj. Philip Pinckney Curtis [1884-1974], and his wife the former Hélène Ellinor Clare Kidston [d 2005], scion of that landed gentry family, by whom he had issue, two sons, Ashe [b 1957], and Charles [b 1960], and a daughter, Emma [b 1959].

The elder son, Capt Ashe George Russell Windham, LVO, Irish Guards [b 11 July, 1957], was Temp Equerry to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother 1980-82, and Exra Equerry to Her Majesty until her death in 2002.

6th Duke of Bedford [1766-1839]-->Lord Charles Russell [1807-94]-->Clarissa Russell [d 1908]-->Henry Steuart Windham [1873-1958]-->William Windham [1926-2021].

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