Living

Living married Diana Frances Spencer, Princess of Wales Diana (daughter of The Right Hon. Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and Hon. Frances Ruth Roche) was born on 1 Jul 1961 in Norfolk, England; died on 31 Aug 1997 in Paris, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Wikipedia Biography of Diana Frances Spencer

Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances n?e Spencer; 1 July 1961 ? 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family and an international personality of the late 20th century as the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981. The wedding, which was held at St. Paul's Cathedral, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. The marriage produced two sons: Princes William and Harry, currently second and third in line to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms, respectively.

A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana was born into an old, aristocratic English family with royal ancestry, and remained the focus of worldwide media scrutiny before, during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. This media attention continued following her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, and in the subsequent display of public mourning a week later. Diana also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. From 1989, she was the president of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Notes:

Wikipedia Biography of Edward John Spencer

Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, MVO (24 January 1924 ? 29 March 1992) was the son of Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer and Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton, and the father of Diana, Princess of Wales. Lord Spencer held the offices of County Councillor for Northamptonshire (1952), High Sheriff of Northamptonshire (1959) and Justice of the Peace for Norfolk (1970).[1] He served as Equerry to King George VI (1950? 52) and to Queen Elizabeth II (1952? 54),[2] and was invested as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (M.V.O.) in 1954.[1]

On 1 June 1954, Lord Althorp and the Hon. Frances Ruth Roche, the younger daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy, were married in Westminster Abbey by Percy Herbert, Bishop of Norwich. They had five children:
Lady Sarah McCorquodale (b.1955)
Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (b.1957)
John Spencer (1960)
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961? 1997)
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (b.1964)

Lord and Lady Althorp were unexpectedly divorced in April 1969. Lord Spencer later won a bitter custody battle for Diana. On 14 July 1976, Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the former wife of the 9th Earl of Dartmouth, and the only daughter of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and Alexander McCorquodale.

1) Staff. "Person Page 100 earl daniel spencer was his great great grand father 89: Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer". thePeerage.com.

2) Royal Household of Buckingham Palace. "Diana, Princess of Wales biography". Royal.gov.uk, the official website of the British Monarchy. "Earl Spencer was Equerry to George VI from 1950 to 1952, and to The Queen from 1952 to 1954."

3) "The 8th Earl Spencer, 68, Dies; Father of the Princess of Wales". The New York Times. 30 March 1992.

Edward + Hon. Frances Ruth Roche. Frances (daughter of Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4rth Baron Femoy and Ruth Sylvia Gill, Baroness Fermoy) was born on 20 Jan 1936 in Norfolk, England; died on 2 Jun 2004 in England, United Kingdom. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Wikipedia Biography of Frances Ruth Roche

Frances Ruth Shand Kydd (n?e Roche, formerly Viscountess Althorp) (20 January 1936 ? 3 June 2004) was the first wife of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. After two failed marriages and the deaths of two children, she devoted her later years to Roman Catholic charity work. Frances Ruth Roche was born in Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk.[1] Her father was Edmund Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend of King George VI and the elder son of the American heiress Frances Work and her first husband, the 3rd Baron Fermoy. Her mother Ruth, Lady Fermoy DCVO was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). On 1 June 1954, aged 18, Roche married John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer) at Westminster Abbey. She was then known as Viscountess Althorp (the name is pronounced Altrup).

The Althorps had five children:

Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia Spencer (19 March 1955), who married Neil Edmund McCorquodale, a distant cousin of Raine, Countess Spencer

Cynthia Jane Spencer later Baroness Fellowes (11 February 1957), who married Sir Robert Fellowes, later Baron Fellowes

John Spencer, who died within 10 hours of his birth on 12 January 1960

Diana Frances Spencer later Diana, Princess of Wales (1 July 1961? 31 August 1997), first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales

Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (20 May 1964), who married Victoria Lockwood, then Caroline Freud (the latter formerly wife of Matthew Freud)

The British media made comparisons between Lady Althorp's and Diana's lives, because both were inexperienced young women who were thrust into the spotlight by marriage to much older men in higher stations to whom they were unfaithful. As with the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the marriage between Lord and Lady Althorp was not a happy one.

1) England & Wales, Birth Index, Jan Feb Mar 1936, 4b 344, Freedbridge Lynn, Norfolk

Notes:

Wikipedia Biography of Edmund Maurice Burke Roche

Roche was born in Chelsea, London, [1] the elder of twin sons of the Hon. James Roche (later Baron Fermoy) and his wife, Frances Ellen Work. He was educated at Harvard University, but returned to England on succeeding to his father's title in 1920. He rented Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk from the Royal Family and at the 1924 general election, he contested and won the local parliamentary constituency, King's Lynn, holding the seat until he stood down at the 1935 general election. [2][3] He was also elected the town's mayor in 1931. [4]

On 17 September 1931, Lord Fermoy married Ruth Sylvia Gill (the youngest daughter of Col. William Gill) at St. Devenick's, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire [1] and they had three children:

a) Hon. Mary Cynthia (b. 1934),
married
(1) Hon. Sir Anthony Berry (divorced 1966),
(2) Denis Geoghegan (divorced 1980),
(3) Michael Gunningham (divorced 1989)

b) Hon. Frances Ruth (b. 1936),
married
(1) Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp (divorced 1969),
(2) Peter Shand Kydd

c) Hon. Edmund James Burke (b. 1939), later the 5th Baron Fermoy.

Lord Fermoy joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 at the start of World War II but when the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Lynn was killed on active service in 1943, he resigned his commission and stood for re-election. He retired from politics when Parliament was dissolved for the 1945 general election. [2]

Lord Fermoy collapsed in a shop at King's Lynn, Norfolk in June 1955 and died three weeks later. [2] He was succeeded by his only son.

1) Williamson, D The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer In: Genealogist's Magazine, 1981; vol. 20 (no. 6) p. 192-199 and vol. 20 (no. 8) p. 281-282

2) The Times, Saturday, Jul 9, 1955; p. 8 col. D

3) Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd edition ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

4) The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Edmund married Ruth Sylvia Gill, Baroness FermoyScotland. Ruth was born on 2 Oct 1908 in Dalhebity, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; died on 6 Jul 1993 in London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Wikipedia Biography of Ruth Sylva Gill

Lady Fermoy was born Ruth Sylvia Gill at her father's house, Dalhebity, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, the daughter of Colonel William Smith Gill and his wife, Ruth. [1] She showed early promise as a pianist and studied under Alfred Cortot at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1920s. [2]

Her musical career was cut short when she met, and later married in 1931, the wealthy and much older Edmund Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy. Before he died in 1955, they had three children which included her middle child, Frances Ruth (the mother of Lady Diana Spencer). Lady Fermoy did play the piano in public occasionally after her marriage, most notably with Josef Krips at the Royal Albert Hall in 1950, and with Sir John Barbirolli and the Hall? Orchestra at King's Lynn in 1966.[3] She founded the King's Lynn Festival in 1951 and remained closely involved with the Festival for 25 years, persuading Queen Elizabeth to become its patron. [4]

In 1956, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, appointed the Dowager Lady Fermoy an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber. The Queen Mother, being a widow herself, showed a preference for appointing widows to her household, and four years later Ruth, Lady Fermoy was promoted to Woman of the Bedchamber, a post she held for the next 33 years. [5]

The Queen Mother and Lady Fermoy became confidantes and it was largely supposed that they engineered the match between Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Fermoy's granddaughter, Lady Diana Spencer. However, when asked about it, Lady Fermoy remarked, "You can say that if you like ? but it simply wouldn't be true". [6] It was also said that she counselled her granddaughter against the marriage. [7]

Lady Fermoy was a firm believer in the sanctity of marriage. In 1969, she testified against her own daughter's fitness as a mother, thus allowing Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp to retain custody of their children after the couple's divorce. [2]

Lady Fermoy died at her home, 36 Eaton Square, London, [8] aged 84. It was reported that she was not on speaking terms with Diana when she died. [2]

1) Williamson, D The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer In: Genealogist's Magazine, 1981; vol. 20 (no. 6) pp. 192-199 and vol. 20 (no. 8) pp. 281-282
2) The Times (London), Thursday, 8 July 1993; p. 4 col. D and p. 19 col. A
3) Vickers, Hugo (2006). Elizabeth: The Queen Mother. Arrow Books/Random House. p. 337. ISBN 9780099476627.
4) History of the King's Lynn Festival
5) Mosley, C (ed.) Burke's Peerage, Baron