Wednesday 3 November 2010

The Duchess of Wellington MBE 1921-2010

From the Telegraph and Times of 1 November 2010: -


WELLINGTON

The Duchess of, Diana Ruth McConnel, MBE, on 1st November at home. Wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Funeral arrangements to be announced.

She was the daughter of Maj-Gen Douglas Fitzgerald McCONNEL of Knockdolian CB CBE DSO (1893-1961) of Ayrshire and Ruth (dau of Maj Walter Dutton GARNETT-BOTFIELD of Beamish, Albrighton, Wolverhampton).

She married 8th Duke of Wellington in 1944. He succ to the title in 1972. They were the longest married ducal couple (if we time the length in years from their actual marriage, not when he succ to the dukedom), a place now taken by The Duke and Duchess of Grafton, who m in 1946.

The Earl and Countess of Lisburne (m 1943) are the longest married couple among the higher degrees of the peerage. The Countess of Dysart has the earliest marriage date (1941), although her husband died in 1987, before she succ to the earldom in 2003.

Diana Ruth, The Most Noble Duchess of Wellington. For services to the community in Hampshire, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.


The Duke of Wellington’s grief

The Duke of Wellington was mourning the loss on Monday of his wife, Diana, less than three months before their 67th wedding anniversary.

“He is grateful that they had so many happy years together,” says a friend of the 8th Duke, 95. The couple had four children, including the Duke’s heir, Lord Douro.

Jemma Kidd (Lady Mornington), the make-up artist, will accompany her husband, Lord Mornington, who is the Duke’s grandson and eventual heir, to the Duchess’s funeral.

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