The Dowager Countess of Iddesleigh, OBE, DL 1934-2023

 The Dowager Countess of Iddesleigh, OBE, DL, who died 11 July, 2023, was the widow of the 4th Earl of Iddesleigh.

She was born in 1934 as Maria Luisa (Mima) Alvarez-Builla y Urquijo (Condesa del Real Agrado, in Spain, a title created in 1771), the only daughter of Don Gonzalo Alvarez-Builla y Alvera and of Maria Luisa de Urquijo, Marquesa de Olias (a Spanish title cr 1652). Her mother, the Marquesa de Olias married 2ndly, 2 Jan, 1938, the 9th Viscount Exmouth (1908-1970).

She married 20 July, 1955, Stafford Henry Northcote, styled Viscount St Cyres (born 14 July, 1932), son and heir of the 3rd Earl of Iddesleigh (1901-1970), and his wife the former Elizabeth Susan Angela Mary Lowndes (died 1991), scion of that landed gentry family. Her husband succeeded his father, 16 February, 1970, as 4th Earl of Iddesleigh (Peerage of the UK cr 1885) and Viscount Saint Cyres (Peerage of the UK cr 1885), and as the 11th Baronet (cr 1641). 

The family home was Shillands House, Upton Pyne, near Exeter. The 4th Earl of Iddesleigh, Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Devon, died 8 July, 2004.

The Countess is survived by a son, John, 5th Earl of Iddesleigh (born 15 February, 1957), and a daughter, Lady Mary Louise Northcote (born 14 April, 1959).

Lady Iddesleigh was appointed OBE and served as a deputy lieutenant of Devon from 1987.

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