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Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Daphne Astor (nee Warburg) 1949-2024

 Daphne Astor, who died 14 July, 2024, aged 74, the artist & poetry editor, was a scion of the Croesus-rich Warburg banking dynasty, and wife of Micky Astor, scion of the English branch of the Astor family.

The American-born British conservationist and farmer worked with literary and visual arts organisations in the UK from 1977. In 2016 she founded and curated Poetry in Aldeburgh, and was the chairperson of C4RD and was a long-term trustee of the Poetry School. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and magazines including Magma, Finished Creatures and Coast to Coast to Coast. She was also publisher and editor of Hazel Press.

She was born Daphne Warburg in New York, 22 December, 1949, the only daughter of Edward Mortimer Morris 'Eddie' Warburg (1908-1992), of Westport, Conn, USA, a prominent philanthropist, collector and patron of the arts who co-founded the American Ballet and the School of American Ballet, and donated many works to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her paternal grandmother was a Schiff — probably an even wealthier family than the Warburgs. Her mother was Mary Whelan Prue (1908-2009).

She married in 1979, Michael Ramon Langhorne Astor (born 29 September, 1946), son of Major the Hon Sir Jacob Astor, MBE (1918-2000) a grandson of the Virginian-born society hostess Nancy Viscountess Astor (1879-1964), who became the first female MP to take her seat in parliament, and her husband, the 2nd Viscount (1879-1952). 

Daphne and Micky adopted three children, Jessica, Luke and Eloise, and settled at Hatley Park, in Cambridgeshire, a Georgian mansion with 1,800 acres of land.

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