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Wednesday, September 04, 2024

Lady Diana Lucy Wolfe Murray (née Douglas-Home) 1940-2024

 The Lady Diana Wolfe Murray, who died 22 August, 2024, aged 83, was the third and youngest daughter of the late former prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

She was born Diana Lucy Douglas-Home, 18 December, 1940, scion of the Earls of Home, daughter of the then Alexander Frederick (Alec) Douglas-Home, styled Lord Dunglas, MP (born 2 July, 1903), Conservative MP for Lanarkshire, & his wife the former Elizabeth Hester Alington (1909-1990), scion of that landed gentry family.

Her father was Tory MP for Lanarkshire, and later for Perthshire and Kinross, a government minister in the 1950s and 1960s including holding the office of Foreign Secretary in the Macmillan administration. He succeeded his father, 11 July, 1951, as 14th Earl of Home, and Lord Dunglas, both in the Peerage of Scotland. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1962. In October, 1963, Home succeeded Macmillan as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. He was the last prime minister to be appointed whilst sitting in the House of Lords. Days after his appointment he disclaimed his peerages for life, and was found a safe seat and elected to the Commons, becoming Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He was prime minister 1963-64, and later created a life peer as Baron Home of the Hirsel, and he was Foreign Secretary in the Heath administration. He died 9 Oct, 1995.

Diana was styled Lady Diana, as daughter of an earl, from 1951, and continued to be so styled after her father disclaimed his peerages in 1963. She married 8 June, 1963 (divorced 1976), as his first wife, James Archibald Wolfe Murray (1936-2011), scion of the Murray of Blackbarony baronets, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Victor Alexander Wolfe Murray (1908-1985), and his first wife the former Lady Grizel Mary Boyle (1913-1942), daughter of the 8th Earl of Glasgow (1874-1963), by whom she had a son, Rory (born 28 March, 1965), and two daughters, Fiona (born 12 Mar, 1964), and Clare (born 6 Mar, 1969).

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