Geoffrey Shakerley

Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet (9 December 1932 – 3 December 2012)^[1] was an English aristocrat and society photographer.

Biography

Elder son and heir of Sir Cyril Holland Shakerley, 5th Baronet, by Elizabeth Averil, née Eardley-Wilmot, he was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Oxford. After serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the KRRC and studying for the Bar exams, he decided that his interest in photography would make a more fulfilling career.

Shakerley photographed the wedding of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie Rhys-Jones; it was later admitted that Prince William's face was digitally enhanced by taking a happier smile from another photograph and placing it on some of the released shots to the press.^[2][3] He also admitted having used telephone directories, in time-honoured tradition, to adjust the height of some wedding guests in his shots.^[4]

He married his first wife, the actress Virginia Maskell in 1962; the couple had two children, born in 1963 and 1966, but Maskell died in 1968. On 27 July 1972, Shakerley married Lady Elizabeth Anson,^[5] daughter of Thomas, Viscount Anson, and Anne Bowes-Lyon—cousin of Queen Elizabeth II—who later became Princess Anne of Denmark, ^[6] in Westminster Abbey. Her brother was society fashion photographer Patrick Lichfield. The Princess Anne was one of the bridesmaids.^[7] Lady Elizabeth was one of the bridesmaids to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

References