Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy

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Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, DCVO, OBE, (2 October 1908 – 6 July 1993) was a friend and confidante of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and the maternal grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Lady Fermoy was born Ruth Sylvia Gill at her father's house, Dalhebity, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, the daughter of Col. William Smith Gill and his wife, Ruth.[1] She showed early promise as a pianist and studied under Alfred Cortot at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1920s.[2]

Her musical career was cut short when she met, and later married in 1931, the wealthy and much older Edmund Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy. Before he died in 1955, they had three children which included her middle child, Frances Ruth (the mother of Lady Diana Spencer). Lady Fermoy did play the piano in public occasionally after her marriage, most notably with Josef Krips at the Royal Albert Hall in 1950, and with Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra at King's Lynn in 1966.[3] She founded the King's Lynn Festival in 1951 and remained closely involved with the Festival for 25 years, persuading Queen Elizabeth to become its patron.[4]

In 1956, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, appointed the Dowager Lady Fermoy an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber. The Queen Mother, being a widow herself, showed a preference for appointing widows to her household, and four years later Ruth, Lady Fermoy was promoted to Woman of the Bedchamber, a post she held for the next 33 years.[5]

The Queen Mother and Lady Fermoy became confidantes and it was largely supposed that they engineered the match between Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Fermoy's granddaughter, Diana. However, when asked about it, Lady Fermoy remarked, "You can say that if you like – but it simply wouldn't be true".[6] It was also said that she counselled her granddaughter against the marriage.[7]

Lady Fermoy was a firm believer in the sanctity of marriage. In 1969, she testified against her own daughter's fitness as a mother, thus allowing Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp to retain custody of their children after the couple's divorce.[2]

Lady Fermoy died at her home, 36 Eaton Square, London,[8] aged 84. It was reported that she was not on speaking terms with Diana when she died.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Williamson, D The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer In: Genealogist’s Magazine, 1981; vol. 20 (no. 6) p. 192-199 and vol. 20 (no. 8) p. 281-282
  2. ^ a b c The Times (London), Thursday, 8 July 1993; p. 4 col. D and p. 19 col. A
  3. ^ Vickers, Hugo (2006). Elizabeth: The Queen Mother. Arrow Books/Random House, p.337. ISBN 9780099476627. 
  4. ^ History of the King's Lynn Festival
  5. ^ Mosley, C (ed.) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition (Burke's Peerage and Gentry LLC, 2004) vol. I p. 1414
  6. ^ The Associated Press, 7 July 1993
  7. ^ Morton, Andrew, Diana: Her True Story (BCA, 1992) p. 55
  8. ^ Who's Who, 1980 (Adam and Charles Black, London) p. 837