Royal Profile: Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck

The final arrival in the royal marriage race that began with the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817, she was a first cousin of Queen Victoria and the mother of Queen Mary.

Princess Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth, the second daughter of Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, was born in Hanover on November 27th, 1833. Her father was the youngest and favorite son of King George III and her mother was Princess Augusta, youngest daughter of the Landgrave Frederick of Hesse. Princess Mary was christened on January 9, 1834 and named after her godparents: Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (her father's favorite sister), Queen Adelaide, King William IV, and Princess Elizabeth, the Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg. She had one sister, Princess Augusta and a brother, Prince George, born three days after Queen Victoria.

Her early years were spent at the Viceregal Palace and Villa Montbrilliant. At the age of three she was taken to England with her mother and they stayed at Windsor Castle. William IV was fond of his god-child and gave her a gold chain and locket containing his hair. In 1837 the family moved to England first living in Cambridge House Piccadilly, and then Cambridge Cottage in Kew. Princess Mary Adelaide, her sister Princess Augusta and their parents attended the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 and later her wedding in 1840.

At the age of seven she began her education, being taught by a governess at home. She took lessons in Latin, Scripture history, and Italian, along with lessons in dancing, and music. She had a particular interest in history and geography. When she was fourteen, her mother later took over her education. Mary was an excellent mimic, had a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice and enjoyed the opera and theatre. She was tall, with ash-blonde, wavy hair, dark blue eyes and a good complexion. But Mary Adelaide had problems with her size. While she had been a striking child with pretty blonde curls, later on she was known rather unflatteringly as 'Fat Mary' or 'Mary the mountain' yet despite her size she moved with a natural grace. She was confirmed on December 19, 1850.

She spent her childhood days at Kew. Her father died in 1850 when she was seventeen-years-old. She and her mother moved from Cambridge Cottage to St. James Palace. At the time it was thought that she should find a husband of wealth and standing. Queen Victoria, intrigued by match-making, joined in the hunt. Her suitors were restricted to the royal blood, and members of the British aristocracy were not considered.

In 1866, through Bertie and Alexandra (the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) she met Prince Francis of Teck - as a serene highness he was of lower rank, four years younger and had no money. But he was of royal rank and on April 6th they became engaged during a stroll in the Rhododendron Walk in Kew Gardens. The couple were married on June 12, 1866 in the little church on Kew Green and the newlyweds were given the apartments at Kensington Palace that Queen Victoria had lived in as a child. Their first child, the future Queen Mary was born on May 26th, 1867, in the same room that Queen Victoria herself had been born. They had three more children - Adolphus (Dolly) on August 13, 1868, Francis (Frank) on January 9, 1870 and Alexander (Alge) on April 14th, 1874.

Mary Adelaide inherited the trait of her 'wicked uncles' the sons of George III. Money had no meaning to her and she believed the the British public should support its royals. She was generous beyond her means in the field of charity, her main extravagance was entertaining. To avoid her creditors, in 1883 she and her family fled to Florence Italy. They returned in 1885 and she managed to get permission to have White Lodge, a grace and favor residence in Richmond Park, as a rural retreat.

In 1891 her daughter Princess Mary became engaged to Prince Albert Victor . Shortly before their wedding he died and a year later she became engaged to his brother, Prince George, the future King George V.

Princess Mary Adelaide died 27 October 1897 at White Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey, and was buried in the royal vault at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

© Marilyn Braun 2009

Royal Profile: Susan Barrantes

Best known as the mother of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, she was part of a family that can trace their ancestry back to 1557.

Born on June 9, 1937 in Bramcote Hills Notthingham, Susan Mary Wright was the youngest of three daughters of FitzHerbert Wright, a former lieutenant in the 15th/19th Hussars and later a company director. Her mother Doreen Wingfield was the only daughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt. Her brother Bryan was for a time the secretary of the Dorchester Club; her elder sister Brigid married Julian Salmond, son of Marshal of the RAF Sir John Salmond; her younger sister Davina married Sir Richard Boughey, Bt.

The Wright family trace their ancestry back to John Wright, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, in 1557. Another ancestor, also John Wright, was imprisoned for eight years for raising a company in a regiment of horse in the Parliamentary cause in 1643. Later, the family moved to Nottingham, where they became principal proprietors of the Butterley Works. Susan's grandfather settled at Yeldersley Hall, Derbyshire.

Susan's childhood interests consisted of riding side-saddle and working hunter classes, where she won numerous prizes. After school, she went through secretarial college and undertook the debutante season at the age of 17 being presented to the Queen.

It was at a dance that she met her first husband, Ronald Ferguson, then serving in the Life Guards. He was at once impressed: she was lively and vivacious, and shared his equestrian interests. She had also, he said, "a touch of Irish wildness about her, and she was a country girl, having been brought up in Lincolnshire and at her grandfather's castle [Powerscourt] in County Wicklow". Moreover, he explained, "she enjoyed going to polo matches - an essential pre-requisite for a Ferguson girlfriend in those days!"

Her parents, feeling she was too young to marry, sent her to France for a year. But the attachment survived the separation, and Susan married Ronald Ferguson at St Margaret's Westminster, on January 17 1956, with a reception for 600 guests at Claridge's. In the same year she appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine.

They began their married life in London, where Ferguson was stationed at Knightsbridge Barracks, and a few years later moved to a house at Ascot, strategically close to the polo fields of Smith's Lawn and Windsor Castle. The couple would have two daughters: Jane in August 1957 and Sarah, the future Duchess of York, born in October 1959. She later miscarried a daughter, Sophia, after developing pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition chiefly characterised by high blood pressure.

In 1968, Ferguson's father died and the family moved to his childhood home, Dummer Down House, a Queen Anne-style farmhouse near Basingstoke. Her interests revolved around horses and she was a keen show jumper. Though the marriage was a happy one in the early years, Ronald Ferguson had an affairs, one of with her best friends. In 1972 she fell in love with a professional polo player from Argentina, Hector Barrantes, whose wife Luisita and unborn child were killed in a car crash near Buenos Aires in February 1972. Barrantes had been a star rugby player and Golden Gloves heavyweight. That summer, Susan decided to leave her family for him which created a society scandal. She was divorced from Ronald Ferguson in May 1974 and married in Barrantes in July 1975, at Chichester, Register Office, England.

She went to live in Argentina, where she and her husband maintained a large ranch at El Pucara, 350 miles south-west of Buenos Aires. There they bred 500 foals for polo, as well as cattle. And no doubt they would have remained there quietly pursuing these interests, had it not been for the marriage of Sarah to Prince Andrew, in July 1986. Thereafter, Sarah's parents and siblings were the focus of intense media attention.

Hector Barrantes fell ill with cancer of the lymph glands and died on August 10, 1990 at the age of 51. Susan experienced finanical difficulties afterwards, having to sell more than half the farm to the polo-playing Australian media magnate Kerry Packer. She gave her first reluctant interview to Hello! magazine in June 1988. She returned to that magazine with a full version of her reminiscences in 1992, and allowed further interviews in subsequent years. In 1997 she wrote the book POLO for which Prince Charles wrote the forward.

On September 19, 1998 she was killed in a car accident and was buried next to her late husband Hector in a vault below her house, next to a polo field on the Argentinian estate.

© Marilyn Braun 2009

Royal Profile: Sir George Pinker

A member of a family that can trace their history back to the Norman Conquest, he was possessed with a fine baritone voice. When he turned down a contract with the D'Oyle Carte Company to pursue a medical career, little did he know that in the process he would modernize the delivery of royal babies.

George Douglas Pinker was born on December 6th, 1924 in Calcutta, India, the second son of Queenie Elizabeth née Dix and Ronald Douglas Pinker, a horticulturist who worked for Sutton's Seeds for 40 years and headed the bulb and flower department for 25 years. At the time of George's birth he ran Sutton Seeds Indian Branch in Calcutta. His older brother Kenneth Hubert was born in Reading on September 15th, 1919.

Kenneth and George returned to England and were looked after by their aunts. At the age of four he and his brother were sent to the exclusive all-boys Reading School in the town of Reading, Berkshire, England. In 1942 he entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School, Paddington, qualifying as a doctor in 1947. As a student in 1946, when the Music Society put on its first post-war production, The Mikado, he sang one of the leading roles. His first brush with royalty came when Queen Elizabeth attended the performance as patron of both the hospital and the medical school, accompanied by the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret.

During his time at St. Mary's he decided to specialize in obstetrics. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Singapore, where he did much of his specialist training. He continued his training in Oxford and London. In 1958, at the age of 33, he was appointed a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1958 to St. Mary's Hospital and Samaritan Hospital for Women, both of which he served for the next 31 years. He also held the position of Consulting Gynaecological Surgeon to Middlesex Hospital, Soho hospital for women, Bolingbroke hospital in Battersea, and the Radcliffe Infirmary from 1969-1980. He accepted willingly an increasing involvement with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, serving as Honorary Treasurer, 1970-77. He was a past president of the British Fertility Society and supported the research that led to the birth in 1978 of Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby.

His work at the Royal College earned him international respect amongst obstetricians and gynaecologists. In 1980 he was elected Vice-President and finally President in 1987. Indeed, so respected is his opinion that to this day, according to his nephew Martin Pinker: "My daughter is expecting twins and she's been going to Mount Sinai hospital. All the top doctors in the hospital, all know George Pinker. The minute she goes in with the name Pinker they say, have you anything to do with George. 'Oh yes, he's my great-great uncle.' So she's getting very special attention. "

He gave his own special attention to his patients. Staff liked and respected him, and patients adored him, According to a family anecdote: "...during the interval an performance at the Royal Opera House a lady went into labor. The house manager knew that George was in the audience so he rushed into the Crush Bar and asked in anyone knew Sir George Pinker. At which point 20 - 70 women raised their hands." *

In 1964 he and several distinguished colleagues founded Childbirth Research Centre in 1964. It would eventually change it's name to Birthright in 1972. In the late nineties the name was changed again to Wellbeing of Women. Diana, Princess of Wales, whose two sons had been delivered by him, became a patron in 1984.

In 1973 he succeeded Sir John Peel as surgeon gynaecologist to the Queen. The youngest person to be appointed to the post, which he held until 1990. He would deliver nine royal babies, starting with the Earl of Ulster, Lady Rose Windsor, Lady Davina Windsor, Lord Frederik Windsor, Lady Gabriella Windsor, Peter Phillips, Zara Phillips, Prince William, and Prince Harry. All of these births took place at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. A significant break with royal tradition; prior to this all royal births had taken place at a royal residence.

He was appointed a CVO in 1983 and a KCVO in 1990. In the same year he authored the book 'Preparing for Pregnancy'. In 1991 he edited 'Clinical Gynecological Oncology'. He also contributed to several books - Diseases of Women by Ten Teachers (1964), Obstetrics by Ten Teachers (1964), A Short Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1967).

His pastimes included a love of music, particularly Opera. He became assistant concert director of Reading Symphony Orchestra and then vice-president of the London Choral Society in 1988. He was a keen skier, sailor, gardener and hill-walker.

On March 31st, 1951 he married Dorothy Emma Russell, a former nurse. The couple would have four children: Catherine & Ian (twins), Robert and William. His wife died in 2003. In his last years he was disabled by Parkinson's disease and partial blindness and he died in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on April 29 2007.

© Marilyn Braun 2008

Thank you to Martin Pinker for information on Sir George's early years and Pinker family history. For more information on Martin Pinker visit this link.

* Trevor Pinker website: The Oxford

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Royal Profile - Raine Spencer

Headline-maker, society beauty, recording artist, television personality, politician, force of nature. Raine Spencer is all of these things. And it all started in the womb.

Raine McCorquodale was born on September 9, 1926 weighing 7lbs 10 3/4 oz. in London. She was the daughter of the famous romance novelist Barbara Cartland and her first husband, Alexander George McCorquodale an Army officer and heir to a printing fortune. Raine was destined for success from the moment she was born. 'When I was carrying my daughter, I was determined she should be beautiful and I not only looked at Beauty but thought it'. Barbara Cartland revealed. Her mother chose the Gaelic name Raine because she thought it sounded romantic. She was christened at St Margaret's Westminster. Schooled from birth on the importance of being socially acceptable, she was a society baby breathlessly written about in Vogue magazine, Glasgow Evening News, and The Daily News. At six months old she was diagnosed with a enlarged thymus gland. Her treatment was £15,000-worth of radium strapped to her chest while she slept.

Her parents divorced in 1936 and in the same year her mother remarried her former husband's cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, and they had two sons, Ian and Glen. Educated by a governess at home. During World War 2 she was briefly sent to Canada. When she returned, she became a weekly boarder at the fashionable Owlstone Croft School. Intelligent and at the top of her class she was known for paying a lot of attention to her appearance.

She came out as a debutante in 1947 at the Queen Charlotte Ball and she was voted 1947 Debutante of the year. She met Gerald Humphrey Legge, heir presumptive to the Earldom of Dartmouth (9th Earl of Dartmouth) when she was sixteen. They were married on July 21, 1948 at St Margaret's Westminster and honeymooned in France. Fifteen months after her marriage, Raine gave birth to her first child, a son William. She would have three more children, Rupert born in 1951, Charlotte in 1963 and Henry in 1968.

In 1954 she made headlines in a situation that would become known as 'the storm in a filthy teapcup' when in the lounge of London airport she noticed tables covered with dirty coffee cups and cigarette ash. After politely asking for the tables to be cleaned but having been given the run-around, she lost her temper. Her outburst made the headlines the following day. Her fifteen minutes of fame continued and she received innumerable invitations to judge appear at and open events. In March 1955 she made her television debut as a story-teller in a programme called Snapshot. She also made a record on the HMV label called 'I'm in Love' written by her mother Barbara Cartland with the proceeds going to charity.

Her television career continued in 1957 when she appeared with her mother and grandmother on an ITV programme called Success Story. In 1958 her husband became Viscount Lewisham and Raine became Lady Lewisham. In October 1962 Gerald and Raine became the Earl and Countess of Dartmouth. She continued to appear regularly on television shows and radio and in the press she was referred to as 'Lady D'.

Active in numerous organizations and Councils as well as holding positions in local politics, it was through her work on the Greater London Council book called What is our Heritage? that she would meet Johnnie Spencer. Edward "Johnnie" the 8th Earl Spencer, first husband of Frances Shand-Kydd and the father of Diana, Princess of Wales found he had much in common with Raine. Coincidently, during their schooldays at Eton, Johnnie Spencer and the Earl of Dartmouth had been good friends. In 1976 she divorced from Gerald, and two months after her divorce, on July 14th of the same year, Raine and Johnnie married in London's Caxton Hall. The marriage was not a popular one with his children, who knew nothing about it until after it happened. The would go on to famously nickname her 'Acid Raine'. She would eventually run further afoul of them when she sold treasures and art work that had belonged to the Spencer family for generations.

In 1978 Johnnie Spencer collapsed with a near fatal brain haemorrahage. He had a stroke and the prognosis was not good. But Raine refused to give up and she contacted everyone she knew with medical connections to find the best place for him to be treated. He remained in a coma for two months and remained in the hospital for two months longer. He eventually recovered well enough to walk his daughter down the aisle at her 1981 wedding.

After her husband's death in 1992, she married French aristocrat, Count Jean-Franois Pineton de Chambrun in 1993 after a 33 day courtship. They were divorced in January 1995.

Along with the aforementioned What is Our Heritage? She has written Do You Care About Historic Buildings? Are Historic Buildings Really Necessary? Japan and the East, Althorp - A Short History of Althorp and the Spencer Family in 1982 and The Spencers on Spas in 1983

She is a member of the board of directors of Harrods - the department store owned by Mohammed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed, who was killed in a car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales.

© Marilyn Braun 2008

Royal Profile: Captain Alexander Ramsay of Mar

Captain Alexander Ramsay of Mar died on the eve of his 81st birthday on December 20, 2000. At the time of his death "Sandy" was one of five surviving great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

Alexander Arthur Alfonso David Maule Ramsay was born in his mother's bathroom at Clarence House, then home to his maternal grandfather the Duke of Connaught, on December 21 1919. He was the son of Princess Patricia of Connaught and Admirable the Honorable Captain Sir Alexander Ramsay, the third son of the 13th Earl of Dalhousie. He was christened in the Chapel Royal, St James's, in the presence of George V and Queens Mary and Alexandra. His godparents included Princess Christian, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) and King Alfonso of Spain.

A playmate of the present Queen when young, Sandy attended Eton College and acted as page of honor, along with his cousin the Earl of Harewood at the Coronation of King George VI. Leaving Eton the same year he received a commission in the Grenadier Guards and he saw active service in North Africa during WWII. He lost his right leg below the knee during a tank battle in Tunisia in 1943. In 1944 he became an Aide-de-Camp of his cousin, Henry Duke of Gloucester who was then Governor General of Australia. During his three years there he had another close call when his car became trapped between two trams in Sydney and was sliced in half.

In 1944 he learnt that he would inherit Mar Lodge and its estates from his aunt, Princess Arthur of Connaught, Duchess of Fife whose only son and heir apparent to the dukedom had died in 1943. Upon leaving the Army in 1947 he studied agriculture at Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated in 1952. He worked for three years on the Linlithgow estates at South Queensferry. In 1959 he inherited the Mar estate and was allowed to add the designation 'of Mar' to his name. Part of the estate was sold to pay inheritance tax and became Mar Lodge Estate; part of which was destroyed by fire in 1991 while being renovated.

On October 6th, 1956 he married Flora Fraser, the only daughter and heiress of the 20th Lord Saltoun, at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. They had met at the Perth Hunt Ball. They had three daughters, Katherine (b 1957), Alice (b 1961) and Elizabeth (b 1963). Upon her father's death in 1979 Flora succeeded as the 21st Lady Saltoun and Chief of the Name of Fraser in her own right. The couple resided at his wife's family seat, Cairnbulg Castle, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.

Captain Ramsay was a devotee of family and Scottish history, and took a keen interest in heraldry. He also enjoyed shooting, sailing and travelling. In 1959 he became vice-patron of the Braemar Royal Highland Society. In 1971 Ramsay became the deputy lord lieutenant for Aberdeenshire. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and for 30 years chairman of the executive committee of the Scottish Life Boat Council. He was survived by his wife and three daughters.

© Marilyn Braun 2008

Royal Profile - Prince Andrew of Greece

Many biographies paint Prince Philip's father as a serious, distant figure who spent his life in exile as a playboy. But according to his great-niece, Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, he was "a tall genial, smiling gentleman, a truly lovable figure." He "was a connoisseur of all the good things in life." According to his son, he was a cheerful man who enjoyed pranks and practical jokes.

Born in Athens on February 2, 1882, one of the first babies of Tatoi, he was the fourth son of King George I of the Hellenes and Queen Olga. He grew up in the Palace of Athens with his four brothers and two sisters. A family of many languages, his parents spoke German to each other, English to their children. The children spoke Greek to each other. Devoted to the country of his birth, Andrea, who would only speak Greek to his parents, insisted on sticking to Greek as his first language, speaking it more fluently than English. But like his son Prince Philip, he was not really Greek at all. Through his mother he was Russian and on his fathers side two parts Danish, one part Dutch and five parts German.

Tall, good-looking, quick witted and intelligent, Andrea was short-sighted and wore spectacles in early life, later adopting a monocle, which added an aura of distinction. Andrea was brought up to be a soldier and was passionate about his military career. At the age of fourteen he became a cadet at the Military School in Athens and in 1901 he was commissioned a subaltern in the calvary. In that year he met Princess Alice of Battenburg (daughter of Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven ). They became engaged the following year and were married (in one civil and two religious ceremonies) in Darmstadt on October 6th & 7th 1903.

After their wedding, the couple lived in Greece, first in the Palace of Athens and later at Mon Repos, the Greek royal residence on Corfu. They had four daughters: Margarita (1905-1981), Theodora (1906-1969), Cecile (1911-37), Sophie (1914-2001), and one son, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1921.

In 1912-13 he took part in the Balkan Wars, during which his father was assasinated. His brother Constantine became king but he was forced to abdicate because of his neutral stance in the First World War. Prince Andrew and his family were banished with him and for three years they lived in exile in Switzerland. When Constantine was reinstated, they returned to Greece in 1920.

In 1922 he took command of the 2nd Army Corps in the war in Asia Minor. The Greeks were heavily defeated by the Turks and the King was once again deposed. Prince Andrew was allowed to remain in Greece, provided he stayed on Corfu, but he was summoned before the revolutionary court, charged with treason for his part in the disastrous Asia Minor campaign, imprisoned and sentenced to death. Princess Alice appealed to King George V for help. The British government intervened and negotiated Prince Andrew's release. He left Greece aboard the HMS Calypso, picking up Princess Alice and the children in Corfu.

The family settled in Saint-Cloud, on the outskirts of Paris. Prince Andrew wrote a book, Towards Disaster - his account of the campaign against the Turks. He returned to Greece briefly for the installation of his nephew as King George II in 1935, but the rest of his life would be spent in exile. The family drifted apart and eventually he moved to Monte Carlo where he settled with his lady friend the Countess Andrée de La Bigne.

He died of a heart attack in the Hotel Metropole in Monte Carlo, on December 3rd, 1944. According to his great-niece, "he got out of bed and donned his dressing-gown, slipped his monocle in his right eye, seated himself in his armchair and quietly died, meeting death itself like the great gentleman he always was." He was taken to rest in the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice. Two years later his body was returned to his own country and buried in the gardens of Tatoi, the royal residence to the north of Athens.

His gravestone reads:

Andrea Vasilopais (Son of a King)
Prince of Greece
Prince of Denmark
1882-1944

© Marilyn Braun 2008

Royal Profile - Catherine Walker

You may not be familiar with her name, however if you followed Diana's fashions, you have most definitely seen her work. A notable example would be the green polka dot dress Diana wore when she left the hospital after the birth of Prince William. Diana had many designers that she favored and for 16 years, Catherine Walker was one of them. So much so..that the dress Diana is buried in bears her label.

Catherine Marguerite Marie-Therese Baheux-Lefebvre was born on June 27th, 1945 in Pont de Briques, a village near Boulogne. She has two older siblings, sister Nicole, and brother Patrick. Her parents were divorced in 1949. Her mother moved the family to the Alps in September 1950 and in 1955 her mother remarried. During school holidays her time was divided between her mother's home in Lille and her father's home in Normandy.

She attended elementary school in Lille, run by nuns of the order Les Dames de St. Maur. She later attended school at a Dominican convent called St. Jeanne d'Arc, excelling in math, and Latin. At seventeen she went on to the University if Lille, studying philosophy. She finished her degree at the University in Aix-en-Provence and afterwards moved to London, with the eventual intention of moving to the United States. She found a job teaching French but went back to Lille for post-graduate studies in Aesthetics. After graduation, she took a job in the French Embassy Lecture Department, and later took over the Film Department at the French Institute.

In February 1967 she met a young lawyer, John Walker, a lawyer, and in June 1969 they were married in the town of Le Touquet. They settled in London and had two daughters, Naomi, born in May 1971, and Marianne, born in November 1972. In the summer of 1975, her husband died suddenly after a tragic accident. After his death, she sent her children to live with her mother in the Alps, while she stayed in Aix. She would move back to London, and through some friends she met her second husband, Said Ismael.

She was never formally taught dress design and started doing so as a form of therapy after becoming suddenly widowed. In 1976 she started her own business, designing children's clothes. Walking from door to door in Kings Road in Chelsea, she sold her designs from a basket. In 1977 she set up her own studio in a dilapidated house in Chelsea, eventually calling it The Chelsea Design Company.

In 1981 she moved away from designing children's clothing. Her first venture into adult clothing was designing maternity wear, which brought her to the attention of Diana, Princess of Wales. She would eventually discontinue designing maternity wear to focus on day, cocktail, and evening dresses. Throughout her career she has sought to elongate the body by lenthening the torso. In this she has been influenced by the work of British photographer John French and by the technique and spirit of traditional French couturiers such as Madeleine Vionnet.

In 1990 she was awarded Designer of the year for Couture and in 1991 Designer of the year for Glamour. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 1995. In 2002 her work was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert museum in an exhibit called 25 years of British Courturier: Catherine Walker. In 2003 she launched Catherine Walker Skincare. She continued to design fo rmembers of the royal family: Lady Gabriella Windsor, Viscountess Serena Linley (wife of David Linley), and Lady Helen Taylor.

Update: Catherine Walker died of breast cancer on September 23, 2010.

© Marilyn Braun 2007

Royal Profile: Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer

When Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles in 1981, the Spencer's - one of England's preeminent aristocratic families, moved into the spotlight. While he is probably best known as the father of Diana, Princess of Wales, Johnnie Spencer was also a gifted amateur photographer, filmaker and people person.

Edward John (Johnnie) was born January 24, 1924, at 24 Sussex Square, London, the son of Albert, the 7th Earl Spencer and Lady Cynthia Hamilton. He had an older sister, Anne (born 1920).

He attended school at Wellesly House in Kent, where he boarded from the age of eight. He was popular, excelled academically, was good at sports, in particular cricket. Like generations of Spencer's, his son and later his grandsons, Princes William and Harry, Johnnie went to Eton in 1937. He excelled at soldiering, and also like his royal grandsons, he was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Around this time his talent for photography began to emerge, and during wartime he chronicled bomb damage with his Box Brownie.

After Eton he went into the Army, fighting in the Second World War. He was mentioned in dispatches for bravery, eventually gaining the rank of Captain in the Royal Scots Greys. After the war he served as ADC to Lord Norrie, Governor of South Australia, before becoming a courtier. He served King George VI and the Queen as an equerry, accompanying her on her tour of the Commonwealth in the early 1950s. He became a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1954.

He married The Honorable Frances Burke Roche on June 1, 1954. Their wedding was considered the social event of the year, attended by the Queen, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret. After their marriage, the couple settled at Park House and Johnnie studied at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. They would have five children (one died in infancy) - Sarah (born 1955), Jane (born 1957), Diana (1961-1997) and Charles (born 1964), the present Earl Spencer. The couple were divorced in 1969, after Frances left Johnnie for Peter Shand Kydd. In the ensuing divorce, he won custody of his children.

He was passionate about photography, his wine cellar and people. As his eldest daughter Lady Sarah McCorquodale recalls:

"My father had an instinctive way with people...He was brilliant, and he stood in this wonderful shop at Althorp selling wine and he would come in and say, 'I've had a really good day today.' So we would say, 'Oh, have you sold lots of wine?' 'No' he'd reply, 'two divorces and a hysterectomy.' People would talk to him and he was gripped. He loved it.

He became the 8th Earl Spencer upon the death of his father in 1975 and the family moved to Althorp. He married his second wife, Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the daughter of the romance novelist, Barbara Cartland, on July 14, 1976. In September 1978 he collapsed due to a stroke, but recovered sufficiently to walk Diana down the aisle at her 1981 wedding.

He was chairman of the National Association of Boy's Clubs and a member of Northampton Council for 29 years. In 1983 he wrote a book with Raine called The Spencer's on Spas.

Lord Spencer died on March 29th, 1992 of a heart attack, at Humana Hospital, Wellington, London, where he had been admitted for pneumonia on March 21st. He was cremated and buried at the traditional Spencer burial place, St. Mary's Church, Great Brighton, Northamptonshire.

© Marilyn Braun 2007

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Royal Profile: Tim Graham

Tim Graham has been photographing the royal family over 30 years. He may not be as well known a photographer as Patrick Lichfield or Snowdon . And you may not recognize him but, chances are, if you follow the royal family, you've seen his work.

He started his career working as an assistant in a Fleet Street picture agency and slowly started taking over photographic assignments, including the royal family. However, his career as a royal photographer got off to a shaky start when he covered the Queen Mother's arrival at an engagement. He had shown up early to get a prime position. and 'as she stepped from her car and I went to take the picture, I found to my dismay that my flash did not fire. My not-very-well-stifled grown alerted the Queen Mother and she stopped to ask if I would like to take another shot. I was eighteen years old, just started in the job, and it is an incident I have never forgotten.' He worked for several years on Fleet Street, and after three years as a staff photographer with the Daily Mail, he left to become a freelancer in 1978.

A love of travelling sparked his interest in photographing the royal family. In 1968 he covered the first of many royal tours, when the Queen and Princess Anne visited Austria. Since then he has traveled with the royal family to over a hundred countries. His photographs have appeared in every major magazine, newspaper, on stamps, TV documentaries, posters, and he has won on several occasions, the Martini award for best royal photograph of the year. Such is his reputation that he has been invited to take official photographs. In 1982 he took the official 18th birthday photographs of Prince Edward, and in 1983 the Prince and Princess of Wales chose him to photograph them with Prince William ahead of their Australian tour. In 1987 he took the official photograph's of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip for their 40th wedding anniversary.

More recently he was invited by the Queen, in her Golden Jubilee year, to photograph her and the other six reigning monarchs of Europe at Windsor Castle. This photograph was historic as it is only the second time in a hundred years that such a gathering has taken place. He considers this photograph to be the most difficult he has ever taken: ‘Dreading the prospect of having to direct Your Majesty and His Majesty and Her Majesty, I was relieved to find that, having had such photographs taken on countless occasions during their reigns, the monarchs needed very little directing.'

He is the author of several books, including: On the Royal Road - A decade of photographing the Royal Family, Diana - H.R.H The Princess of Wales, In Private, In Public: The Prince and Princess of Wales, Jubilee - A Celebration of 50 years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. His book Diana, Princess of Wales A Tribute and William to mark the Prince's 21st birthday have been on the best-seller lists.

He lives in London with his wife Eileen and his two children, Lucy and Tom.

© Marilyn Braun 2007

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