David Bowes-Lyon

David Bowes-Lyon

Sir David Bowes-Lyon KCVO (2 May 1902 – 13 September 1961) was the sixth son of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Cecilia Nina Cavendish-Bentinck. His sister Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, the second son of King George V, in 1923 and became Queen Consort on the abdication of her husbands brother King Edward VIII in 1936.

On 6 February 1929, he married Rachel Pauline Clay (d. 21 January 1996) and they had two children:

  • Davina Katherine Bowes-Lyon (b. 2 May 1930)
  • Simon Alexander Bowes-Lyon (b. 17 June 1932)

During World War II, David was a member of the secret propaganda department Political Warfare Executive. He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1950 and Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire from 1952 until his death. Also, he became President of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1953. In 1960, he commanded the third World Orchid Conference.

He died at his sister's home, Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, of a heart attack after suffering from hemiplegia. The Queen Mother discovered him dead in bed. The funeral was held at Ballater, and he was buried at St Paul's Walden Bury.

Read more about David Bowes-Lyon:  Ancestry

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