Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
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Alexandra Anastasia "Sacha" Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn (b. 27 February 1946, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.) is the wife of the current Duke of Abercorn.
She is the elder daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips and his wife, Georgina. Her younger sister is Duchess of Westminster. Her paternal grandparents were Joseph Harold John Phillips and wife Mary Mercedes Bryce, whose niece Janet Mercedes Bryce (daughter of Major Francis Bryce of Hamilton, Bermuda and wife Gladys Jean Mosley) married David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven.
The Duchess of Abercorn and her children (as well as her sister) are in the line of succession to the British Throne, 630th, as direct descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover. They are direct descendant of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, as well as his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was a protégé of Peter the Great. It is through their Russian grand ducal father that Alexandra and Natalia are descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover.
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[edit] Royal ancestry
The sisters are related distantly to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Their maternal grandmother Lady Wernher was born Countess Anastasia de Torby (later Lady "Zia" Wernher), younger morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia (a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia) by his wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg, morganatic daughter of Prince Nicholas of Nassau (himself brother of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg by his wife, the younger daughter of Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin.
Lady Zia's sister Nadezhda (or "Nada") was wife of the George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, elder maternal uncle of Prince Philip. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the prince through their common ancestor Nicholas I.
The Duchess of Abercorn is a close friend of the Duke of Edinburgh today, and her sister the Duchess of Westminster is a godmother of Prince William of Wales. The Duke of Abercorn was himself closely related to the late Diana, Princess of Wales whose father was his first cousin.
[edit] Siblings
- Nicholas Harold Phillips (23 August 1947–1 March 1991)
- Fiona Mercedes Phillips (born 30 March 1951)
- Marita Phillips (born 28 May 1954)
- Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (born 8 May 1959)
[edit] Marriage
On 20 October 1966, Alexandra "Sacha" Phillips married the Marquess of Hamilton (later Duke of Abercorn) in Westminster Abbey, elder son of the 4th Duke of Abercorn. They have three children:
- James Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton (b. 19 August 1969)
- Lady Sophia Alexandra Hamilton (b. 8 June 1973)
- Lord Nicholas Edward Hamilton (b. 5 July 1979)
The Duchess and her family reside at Baronscourt, near Drumquin, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
[edit] Public roles
- The Duchess is the founder of the Pushkin Prizes.
- The Duchess is the Honorary Secretary of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation in Omagh, County Tyrone, site of a 1999 bombing that left 29 people dead (one of whom was pregnant with twins).
- The Duchess is the House Patron of Abercorn House at Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
