Sir David Bowes-Lyon KCVO (2 May 1902 – 13 September 1961) was the sixth son of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Cecilia Nina Cavendish-Bentinck as well as their tenth and youngest child. His elder sister Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of George V, in 1923 and became Queen Consort on the abdication of her husband's brother Edward VIII on 11 December 1936.
On 6 February 1929, he married Rachel Pauline Clay, younger daughter of Herbert Henry Spender-Clay, and they had two children:
During World War II, Bowes-Lyon was a member of the secret propaganda department Political Warfare Executive. He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1950 and Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire from 1 July 1952 until his death. Also, he became President of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1953. In 1960, he commanded the third World Orchid Conference. He was also a baptismal sponsor to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales.
He died at his sister's home, Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, of a heart attack after suffering from hemiplegia. The Queen Mother discovered him dead in bed. The funeral was held at Ballater, and he was buried at St Paul's Walden Bury.