Hereditary and non-hereditary aristocrats and gentry for UK and Europe Chat

[fawbert]

The Hon Vere Harmsworth, 30, son and heir of the 4th Viscount Rothermere, proprietor of the Daily Mail, has announced his engagement to Alexandra Wood, 27

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/04/harmsworthwood-engagement.html

The 10th Earl of Hardwicke, 54, is to marry Nicola Osmond-Evans, 52. The peer;s second marriage.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-earl-of-hardwick-to-marry-nicola.html

Zoë, Lady Monk Bretton, widow of the 3rd Lord Monk Bretton, has died at her home near Montreux.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/04/zoe-baroness-monk-bretton.html

[PrincessOfPeace]

Thanks fawbert!

[PrincessOfPeace]

Daily Mail: Duchess of Westminster glows as she's pictured for the first time since announcing her pregnancy on university visit with her husband

[fawbert]

The Dowager Countess of Strathmore & Kinghorne, who died at her home 28 April, 2025, aged 92, was the widow of the late 17th Earl of Strathmore, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Countess lived at Glamis, the Forfar seat the Bowes Lyon family and childhood home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

She was the former Mary Pamela McCorquodale, and was born 31 May, 1932, the second daughter of Brigadier Norman Duncan McCorquodale, MC (1898-1971),  scion of that landed gentry family, of King's Head House, Winslow, co. Buckingham, by his wife Barbara Helen de Knoop, 1st daughter of Capt Jersey de Knoop.

She married 10 April, 1956, the then Capt Fergus Michael Claude Bowes Lyon (born 31 December, 1928), the elder son of Capt the Hon Michael Claude Hamilton Bowes Lyon (1893-1953), brother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and his wife the former Elizabeth Margaret Cator (1899-1959), scion of that landed family. On 13 Sept, 1972 her husband succeeded his cousin as 17th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (Scotland, let. pat. 10 Jul 1606;  additional charter 1 Jul 1677), Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (United Kingdom, let. pat. 1 Jun 1937), Viscount Lyon (Scotland, let. pat. 1 Jul 1677), Lord Glamis (Scotland, let. pat. 28 Jun 1445), Lord Glamis, Tannadyce, Sidlaw and Strathdichtie (Scotland, let. pat. 1 Jul 1677), Baron Bowes, of Streatlam Castle in the County of Durham and of Lunedale in the County of York (United Kingdom, let. pat. 1 Jul 1887).

The 17th Earl collapsed and died on his grouse moor at Glamis, 18 August, 1987, aged 58.

The Countess leaves two daughters, (1) Lady Elizabeth Leeming (born 23 Dec, 1959), sometime Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth II and later a Lady in Waiting to the Princess Royal, and (2) Lady Diana Godfrey-Faussett (born 29 Dec, 1966), and was predeceased by her only son, Michael Fergus Bowes Lyon, the 18th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne, DL (1957-2016).

Her grandson is the 19th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne (born 18 June, 1986).

-=-

[fawbert]

Lady Clitheroe, wife of the 2nd Baron, of Downham Hall, Lancashire, has died aged 88. She was Juliet Hanbury, scion of that landed gentry family

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-baroness-clitheroe-1936-2025.html

[fawbert]

The 8th Earl of Donoughmore, Irish peer and businessman, has died aged 97, succeeded by his son Viscount Suirdale

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-8th-earl-of-donoughmore-1927-2025.html

[fawbert]

Major General Sir Christopher Airy, KCVO, CBE, sometime commanding officer 1st Battalion the Scots Guards, private secretary to the then Prince & Princess of Wales 1990-91, has died aged 91.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/major-general-sir-christopher-john-airy.html

[fawbert]

Sir Ludovic Shaw Stewart, 12th Baronet, descended from the Scottish Kings, engaged to Jennifer Scott

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/shaw-stewartscott-marriage.html

Charles Haddock and his wife Caroline (nee Colacicchi) have had a daughter Violet. Caroline Haddock is a sister of the Countess of Arundel & Surrey

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/violet-olympia-colacicchi-haddock-born.html

Capt Simon Mann, father of Prince Harry's former 'wingman' Jack Mann, has died suddenly

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/capt-simon-francis-mann-1952-2025.html

[PrincessOfPeace]

Thanks fawbert 👍

[fawbert]

 The engagement was announced 13 May, 2025, between Alexander Ronald Reviakin (born 1996), only son of Mr Sergei Reviakin, of London, and Mrs Rosanna Gardner (nee Kelly), of County Wexford, Ireland, and  and the Lady Henrietta Mary Rose Stanley (born 6 February, 1997), only daughter of the 19th Earl of Derby (born 10 Oct, 1962), of Knowsley Hall, Prescot, Merseyside, and the Countess of Derby (nee the Hon Caroline Neville, born 28 Dec, 1963, scion of the Barons Braybrooke).

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/reviakinstanley-engagement.html

[fawbert]

Johnnie Earl of Ancram, 37, son and heir of the Marquess of Lothian, of Melbourne Hall, Derby, is engaged to Giulietta Francesca Bateman, 30, a film producer.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-earl-of-ancram-to-marry-giutietta.html

[fawbert]

Camille Countess of Southesk, wife of the Duke of Fife's son and heir, has given birth a second daughter, Lady Chiara Louise Carnegie

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/lady-chiara-louise-carnegie-born-2025.html

The infant is a direct descendant of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra

[fawbert]

Carrie Johnson, wife of the former prime minister Boris, has given birth to their fourth child (Boris's 9th)

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/poppy-eliza-josephine-johnson-born-2025.html

Malise, Lady Forbes Adam, widow of Sir Nigel Forbes Adam, 5th Baronet, has died aged 91

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/malise-lady-forbes-adam-1933-2025.html

Lord Phillimore, the 5th Baron, has died aged 80

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-5th-baron-phillimore-1944-2025.html

Welcome, Nancy Soames, the latest great-great grandchild of Sir Winston Churchill, KG

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/nancy-lucinda-amelia-soames-born-2025.html

Obituary: Simon Sladen, father of the Duchess of Grafton

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/simon-hogarth-sladen-1943-2025.html

Obituary: Susan, Lady Anstruther, widow of Sir Ian Anstruther of that Ilk, Bt

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/susan-lady-anstruther-1930-2025.html

Obituary: Francisco de Paula Enrique de Borbón y Escasany, 5th Duke of Seville

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/francisco-de-paula-enrique-de-borbon-y.html

Obituary: Maria Lady Musgrave, Greek-born widow of Sir Richard Musgrave, Bt

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/maria-lady-musgrave-widow-of-sir.html

[fawbert]

A Ducal Discovery

Sharon Burgess-Close, a 66 year-old musician and dancer, living in Geelong, Australia, had the surprise of her life went she appeared on an Australian TV show 'The Secret DNA of Us', a programme that features participants who give DNA samples to discover family relationships.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-ducal-discovery.html

One hundred applicants were chosen from the Geelong area to participate and among several people highlighted in the episode was Sharon Burgess-Close, who had grown up never knowing who her father was.

Born in the UK in January, 1959, Sharon learned early on about her mother Linda's colourful life.

In the early 1960s Linda (whose birth name was Dina) was a dancer at the famous Murray's Cabaret, in London's Soho, and is reported to have shared a flat with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, who were known for their central role in the Profumo Affair, the political scandal of  1963 centred around John Profumo, MP, Minister without Portfolio, a leading member of the Macmillan government.

Sharon's mother died in 2024 without ever revealing the identity of Sharon's father. So when she saw the advertisement on social media seeking participants for the SBS show she thought at last she might finally discover the identity of her father. Was he perhaps one of the high society aristocrats, or famous actors who frequented the Murray's Cabaret club?

A hundred Geelong folk gathered together and gave DNA samples and then it was a waiting game while their DNA was analysed. Some eight weeks later, Sharon received a call asking if she could make herself available for two days of filming. So, it was with some trepidation that Sharon met the production team at the Federal Mills to learn what they had discovered. Firstly, producers handed Sharon a photograph and told her 'This is your grandmother.' She was an American heiress, Clothilde Quigley, who came to the UK to make an aristocratic marriage.  While still processing this information, Sharon was handing a newspaper clipping that revealed her father's name, - William James Cavendish-Bentinck, a scion of the now extinct Dukes of Portland. Sadly, this newspaper article also revealed her father had died 4 September,1966, at the age of 42, without any legitimate offspring. If he had lived to survive his father he would have become 10th Duke of Portland.

William Cavendish-Bentinck, the thrice married descendant of the Dukes of Portland, was born 6 July, 1925, the only son of the diplomat Victor Cavendish-Bentinck (1897-1990), Assistant Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office 1944;  Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Poland 1945-47, and his first wife, Clothilde Quigley, from whom he was divorced in 1948. In 1977 Victor's elder brother, Ferdinand, succeeded a cousin as 8th Duke of Portland, and upon the 8th duke's death without a male heir, 13 Sept, 1980, Victor succeeded as 9th (and last) Duke.

Sharon burst into tears, overwhelmed by emotion. In a few short moments she had found her family and lost them all at once. There were more surprises in store as Sharon was told that Queen Elizabeth II's grandmother was related to her father, and her maiden name was also Cavendish-Bentinck, and King George VI and the Queen Mother were also her father's godparents. Burke's Peerage does not show that William was a godson of either King George or Queen Elizabeth, and such details are usually recorded. Victor however was a close friend of his royal cousin, Queen Elizabeth. On Victor's death, 30 July, 1990, the Dukedom of Portland became extinct, but the Earldom of that name passed to a distant kinsman, Henry Bentinck.

Finding out about her father and his mother and her royal connections (she is a fifth cousin of King Charles III), has given Sharon answers to who she is. She said she always felt like something was missing and she had no identity.

Victor, the .9th Duke was also father of a daughter, Lady Mary Jane Cavendish-Bentinck (born 16 December, 1929, who died 1 March, 2010), who married twice,  and was mother of two sons, Sharon's cousins, William and David Georgiades. Whether she reaches out to meet them or not, Sharon is not sure. She doesn't want to upset anyone, but would love to meet someone who knew her father, who could tell her more about him, what he was really like?

For now, Sharon will simply continue on with life as she knew it, performing with her husband Paul in their two-piece band PASH. The experience has been a positive one for Sharon. There is now closure of sorts.