Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne
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Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon née Cavendish-Bentinck, (11 September 1862 – 23 June 1938) was the mother of Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) and maternal grandmother and godmother of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
She was born in London[1] the eldest daughter of Rev. Charles Cavendish-Bentinck and his wife, Caroline. On 16 July 1881, she married Lord Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis at Petersham, Surrey[2] and they had ten children. Claude inherited his father's title of Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1904, whereupon Cecilia became Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
During World War I her home, Glamis Castle, was a convalescent hospital for the wounded, in which she took an active part until an undisclosed illness forced her to take a lesser one. By May 1922 she had recovered and was able to celebrate the bethrothal of her youngest daughter, Elizabeth to the King's son, Prince Albert, Duke of York, later George VI.[3]
She was deeply religious, a keen gardener and embroiderer, and preferred a quiet, family life. When bothered by pressmen for a photograph during the abdication crisis she is reported to have said, "I shouldn't waste a photograph on me."[3]
Lady Strathmore outlived four of her ten children, dying in 1938, aged 75, at 38 Cumberland Mansions in London. She was buried on 27 June 1938 at Glamis Castle.
[edit] Styles from birth to death
- 1862–1881: Miss Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck
- 1881–1904: Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Lady Glamis
- 1904–1938: The Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne
[edit] References
- ^ Census returns of England and Wales 1881, Public Record Office RG11 Folio 0098/114 p.3
- ^ Civil Registration Indexes: Marriages General Register Office, England and Wales Jul-Sep 1881 Richmond, Surrey vol. 2a p. 549
- ^ a b The Times (London) Thursday, 23 June 1938; p. 16; col. D
