Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland

Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, GCVO (13 December 1886 – 13 June 1965), was born as Helen Magdalan Gordon-Lennox, the daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara (later the 7th Duke of Richmond).

She was married on 18 October 1911 to Earl Percy, who succeeded his father as 8th Duke of Northumberland in 1918, whereupon she became known as the Duchess of Northumberland. The couple had six children:^[1]

• Henry George Alan Percy, 9th Duke of Northumberland (born 15 July 1912, killed in action 21 May 1940)
• Hugh Algernon Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (born 6 April 1914, died 11 October 1988)
• Lady Elizabeth Ivy Percy (born 25 May 1916, died 16 September 2008), married Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton in 1937
• Lady Diana Evelyn Percy (born 23 November 1917, died 16 June 1978) married John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland in 1939 in Westminster Abbey
• Lord Richard Charles Percy (born 11 February 1921, died 1989)
• Lord Geoffrey William Percy (born 8 July 1925, died 4 December 1984)

She was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, from 1937 to 1964 and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1938.^[2]

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