| The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire | |
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The Duchess poses at Chatsworth in 1952. Photograph by Norman Parkinson/Sygma/CORBIS. |
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| Born | March 31, 1920 Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England |
| Title | Duchess of Devonshire |
| Tenure | 26 November 1950 – 3 May 2004 (53 years, 159 days) |
| Other titles | See below. |
| Residence | Edensor House, Chatsworth Estate. |
| Parents | David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and Sydney Bowles |
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVO (born 31 March 1920), née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted Mitford sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England.
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Known to her family as "Debo", Deborah Mitford married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, in 1941. When Cavendish's older brother, William, Marquess of Hartington, was killed in combat in 1944, Cavendish became heir to the dukedom and Marquess of Hartington; in 1950, upon the death of his father, he became the 11th Duke of Devonshire.
With her husband, the Duchess was the main public face of Chatsworth for many decades. Upon the death of her husband in 2004, her son Peregrine Cavendish became the 12th Duke of Devonshire .
The Duchess has written several books about Chatsworth, and has played a key role in the restoration of the house, the enhancement of the garden and the development of commercial activities such as Chatsworth Farm Shop (which is on a quite different scale from most farm shops as it employs a hundred people); Chatsworth's other retail and catering operations; and assorted offshoots such as Chatsworth Food, which sells luxury foodstuffs which carry her signature and Chatsworth Design which sells image rights to items and designs from the Chatsworth collections. Recognising the commercial imperatives of running a stately home, she takes a very active role and has been known to run the ticket office for Chatsworth House herself. She also supervised the development of the Cavendish Hotel at Baslow near Chatsworth and the Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Abbey.
In 1999 the Duchess was appointed a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) by Queen Elizabeth II, for her service to the Royal Collection Trust. She became the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire in 2004, when her son inherited the dukedom upon the death of her husband.
She and the duke had seven children, three of whom died shortly after birth:[1]
The Duchess is the maternal grandmother of the fashion model Stella Tennant and a maternal aunt of Max Mosley, former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
In an interview with John Preston of the Daily Telegraph, published in September 2007, she recounted having tea with Adolf Hitler during a visit to Munich in June 1937, when she was visiting Germany with her mother and her sister Unity, the latter being the only one of the three who spoke German and, therefore the one who carried on the entire conversation with Hitler. Shortly before ending the interview, she was asked to choose with whom she would have preferred to have tea: American singer Elvis Presley or Hitler. Looking at the interviewer with astonishment, she answered: "Well, Elvis of course! What an extraordinary question." [3]
In 2010, the BBC journalist Kirsty Wark interviewed the Duchess for Newsnight. In it, the Duchess talked about life in the 1930s and 1940s, Hitler, the Chatsworth estate, and the marginalisation of the upper classes. [4] She was also interviewed on December 23 by Charlie Rose for PBS. She spoke of her memoir and other interesting aspects of her life.[5]
Nancy Mitford (28 November 1904 - 30 June 1973)
Pamela Mitford (25 November 1907 – 12 April 1994)
Thomas Mitford (2 January 1909 – 30 March 1945)
Diana Mitford (17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003)
Unity Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948)
Jessica Mitford (11 September 1917 – 22 July 1996)
Deborah Mitford (born 31 March 1920)