Frances Shand Kydd
|
The Honourable Frances Shand Kydd |
|
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Frances Ruth Roche 20 January 1936 Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk, England |
| Died | 3 June 2004 (aged 68) Seil, Argyll and Bute, Scotland |
| Cause of death |
Parkinson's disease Brain tumor |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) |
John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (m. 1954–1969) Peter Shand Kydd (m. 1969–1990) |
| Children |
Lady Sarah McCorquodale Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes John Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer |
| Parents |
Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy |
| Known for | Mother of Diana, Princess of Wales |
| Religion | Roman Catholic (formerly Church of England) |
Frances Ruth Shand Kydd (née Roche; 20 January 1936 – 3 June 2004) was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Her biographer, Max Riddington, who was the writer of Frances: The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother, described Shand Kydd as a woman who was "certainly complicated" and also "funny, warm, intelligent, and energetic." Following her breakup with John Spencer, Viscount Althorp in 1969, and Diana's death in 1997, Shand Kydd devoted the final years of her life to Roman Catholic charity work.
Shand Kydd was born Frances Ruth Roche in Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, on 20 January 1936. Her father was Maurice 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 Roche, Baroness Fermoy, DCVO, was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). In her own right since birth she held the style of The Honourable as the daughter of a baron.
Her paternal grandmother, Frances Ellen Work, was an heiress and socialite from New York City. Shand Kydd was a direct descendant of Kitty (her great-great-grandmother), daughter of Eliza and Theodore Forbes.
Shand Kydd's Irish aristocratic and royal roots are related to a Prince, who was Donal MacCarthy Reagh, 9th Prince of Carbery, but also to James de Barry, 4th Viscount Buttevant, to Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond, to Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare through Donal IV O'Donovan who is descended from all these. It also happens that O'Donovan was Edmond Roche, 1st Baron Fermoy's maternal great-great grandfather.
...
Wikipedia