She was born Christina Muriel Duncan in 1939, a daughter of Major Charles Moorhouse Duncan and his his 2nd wife Thelma Winifred Watts (1917-2012). She had two older half-sisters, Hazel and Pamela, from her father's first marriage to the Hon Violet Handcock (1895-1976), daughter of the 6th Baron Castlemaine. Her younger sister was Veronica, Countess of Lucan (1937-2017).
She married in Kensington in 1963, William Shand Kydd (born 12 May, 1937), son of wallpaper tycoon Norman Shand Kydd (1895-1966) and his 2nd wife Freda Minnie Foy (1910-1995). Her husband, a dedicated gambler, he once won and quickly lost £70,000 playing Chemin de fer at the Clermont Club. The experience induced him to give up gambling. Her husband was an adrenaline-fuelled sportsman, womaniser, gambler, successful jockey and racehorse breeder. Even a fall which left him paralysed from the neck down could not temper his reckless lifestyle, and he went on to raise millions for charity.
In 1995 his horse Captain Pike fell on him, leaving him with two broken vertebrae and paralysed from the neck down. "Girlfriends came in droves to the hospital," he said. Ever the optimist, he remained upbeat, saying, "I've joked my way through my life and my memories are very sustaining."
Unperturbed by his disability, Shand Kydd set about fundraising for Spinal Research; he took part in a 12,000ft skydive strapped to an instructor, complete with respirator, raising more than £1m. He died 27 December, 2014.
Christina and her husband had introduced Christina's sister Veronica to the 7th Earl of Lucan and the couple married. On 7 November 1974 the Lucans' nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered in the basement of their home at 46 Lower Belgrave Street in central London. Lucan then drove to the home of his friends Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott in Uckfield, East Sussex, from where he wrote two letters to Bill Shand Kydd. It is understood he also tried to telephone him, but Shand Kydd's bedside phone had been switched off – "and when the girl answered the phone downstairs she thought I wasn't in." Shand Kydd felt certain that if they had spoken he could have convinced Lucan to hand himself in.
Lucan's letters, written on blood-stained paper, described how he had seen an intruder struggling with his wife, and went on to ask the Shand Kydds to look after his three children: "I am going to lie doggo for a while and would like them to live with you." They eventually did so in 1982, after their mother had a breakdown. George Bingham, Lucan's heir, would later describe Shand Kydd as a "perfect role model". The second letter was a request that proceeds from a sale of family silver be used to clear Lucan's overdraft and debts.
At the inquest in 1975 Lucan was named as Rivett's murderer; his car had been found abandoned in Newhaven, its interior stained with blood and its boot containing a piece of bandaged lead pipe. Despite sporadic alleged sightings all over the world, Shand Kydd never saw Lucan again and never agreed with the assertions of his guilt; he believed he probably took his own life shortly after his disappearance.
William Shand Kydd also had another famous association. For 19 years his older half-brother Peter Shand Kydd (1925-2006), was married to Diana, Princess of Wales's mother Frances, Viscountess Althorp (1936-2004), after her divorce from the future 8th Earl Spencer. Shand Kydd described Diana as "a cracking bird, much better than she looks in pictures".
Christina leaves issue, a son Caspar Shand Kydd (born 1967), and a daughter, Lucinda, Lady Kleinwort (born 1964), wife of Sir Richard Kleinwort, 4th Baronet.
A Thanksgiving Service for Christina Shand Kydd will be held on Monday 22 September, at St Giles Church, Cheddington.
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