Ernestine Bowes-Lyon
| Ernestine Bowes-Lyon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1891 Glamis Castle, Scotland |
| Died | 1981 (aged 89–90) Navarrenx, France |
| Other names | Tenie |
| Spouse(s) | Ronald Charles Grant, 10th Baron de Longueuil |
| Children | Raoul Grant Raymond Grant, 11th Baron de Longueuil |
| Parent(s) | Hon. Ernest Bowes-Lyon Isobel Hester Drummond |
Ernestine Maude Bowes-Lyon, known as "Tenie" to her friends, was born at Glamis Castle in Scotland in 1891 and died in 1981 in Navarrenx, south of France. Tenie was one of five children. Her father Ernest Bowes-Lyon (son of Claude Bowes-Lyon) died ten days after her birth, 2 days after Christmas, in a riding accident in 1891. He was a diplomat; a Consul in Belgrade. Tenie's mother was a Drummond, of the family of Drummonds bank, of 49 Charing Cross, the bank of the Royal Family.
Tenie grew up in Glamis Castle along with her younger cousin Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon the future Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and learnt to drive a coach and four down Glamis drive. During her early years she had the privilege of meeting and learning from poets, writers, philosophers and other intelligencia of the period. One in particular, writer P. G. Wodehouse, remained a friend and correspondent until his death and one of his last letters written was to Tenie. Wodehouse dedicated his book The Pothunters to Ernestine Bowes-Lyon.
Tenie first married in 1910, and had two children. She met Ronald Grant de Longueuil, 10th Baron de Longueuil, at the Christmas Ball of the Tate family, (Tate Gallery) in December 1913. Having eloped with Ronnie and the ensuing scandal, she followed Ronnie to the Western Front where she took the role of a nursing assistant dealing with the horrors of the dreadful injuries of the war. At the declaration of the Armistice she met up with Ronnie. He, war-weary and uncertain of his future, asked her to return to her family. Shocked at this and the certain humiliation, she took out of her shoulder bag the small revolver she kept for protection, and shot herself in the chest. Miraculously she survived (with the bullet lodged by her heart) and in hospital informed Ronnie that she was pregnant. Having had two children previously she knew the sign and symptoms.
Ronald and Ernestine moved to The chateau of Sus, near Navarrenx in the south west of France, essentially they were squatters. Raoul Charles was born in 1919, and Raymond de Longueuil followed soon after in 1921. Raoul who went on to be a naval aviator and was killed over the North Sea in 1942 in pursuit of the Nazi Tirpitz Battleship, hence Raymond the second born inherited the title Baron de Longueuil.
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