Lady Ursula D'Abo (1916–2017)

Lady Ursula d'Abo, née Manners, was born in London, the eldest daughter of John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland, and his wife Kathleen Tennant. Lady Diana Cooper was her paternal aunt. Lady Ursula grew up in a lavish, rarified atmosphere partly at Haddon Hall, the family's home in Derbyshire, and Belvoir Castle, the seat of their vast estates in Leicestershire. She and her sisters were educated at home by governesses in what she later described as "all the traditional home pursuits: cooking, sewing, and running a large house," and she took swimming, ballet, and piano lessons. As a child, she was a playmate of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose of York. She was "finished" in Paris and officially came out into society at age 17 at a grand ball held at Belvoir. At the coronation of King George VI in 1937, Lady Ursula was a maid-of-honor and train-bearer to Queen Elizabeth, and became world famous after being photographed with the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. In 1943, she married Anthony Marreco, a barrister; five years later, after being separated by World War II, they were divorced. In 1951, Lady Ursula remarried to Robert Erland d’Abo, a financier, with whom she had three children. After d'Abo's death, she had a relationship with J. Paul Getty, but remained unmarried. In 2014, she published her memoirs, The Girl with the Widow's Peak.