CECIL, Mrs Hugh ((Christine) Mirabel Charlotte Louise nee WALKER) 1944-2024

[Richard R]

From the Telegraph of 12 Oct 2024: CECIL Mirabel (née Walker). Peacefully at home in Wiveton, Norfolk, on October 5th aged 80 years. Beloved wife of the late Hugh.

She was d of Richard Fife WALKER OBE 1910-2001 of The Close, Withington, Glos by his 1937 m reg Q3 London to [?his 1st w] Christine Mary WILKES 1909-1968. She m 1972 Hugh Peniston 1941-2020 s of Lord (Edward Christian) David CECIL 1902-86 (s of 4th Marquess of SAILSBURY KG GCVO TD 1861-1947, gs of 5^th Earl of ARRAN 1839-1901, 2xgt gs of 3^rd Earl of RODEN 1788-1870, as well 5^th Earl COWPER 1778-1837, etc etc) and Rachel Mary Veronica 1909-82 d of Sir (Charles Otto) Desmond MacCARTHY 1877-1952 and Mary Josepha (Molly) WARRE-CORNISH 1882-1953 scion of the CORNISH gentry family f/o Thurlestone, and had two sons and two daus.

[Richard R]

An obvious typo CORRECTION: for 4th Marquess of SAILSBURY, read SALISBURY....

[colinp]

Obit in the Telegraph -   Mirabel Cecil, author of biographies on varied subjects, often written with husband Hugh – obituary

EXTRACTS:

Mirabel Cecil, author of a string of noted biographies, often written with her husband Hugh

‘The heroine’s goal is constant – love, true love,’ she wrote in Heroines in Love 1750-1974. ‘...Mr Alright will not do’

Mirabel Cecil , who has died aged 80, was a force of nature and talented in all that she undertook, not least in the biographies she wrote with her husband Hugh Cecil.

In Clever Hearts (1990) the Cecils explored the lives of Hugh’s maternal grandparents, the literary and drama critic Desmond MacCarthy and his wife Molly, daughter of the Eton housemaster Francis Warre Warre-Cornish. The book was well-received, winning both the Duff Cooper Prize for the best non-fiction book of the year and the Marsh Biography Award.

Imperial Marriage (2005) was another jointly written book featuring Hugh’s family, in this case Lord Edward Cecil (1867-1918), fourth son of the prime minister Lord Salisbury, and a hero of the Siege of Mafeking in 1899-1900. His marriage, however, was more problematical, for his wife fell in love with Viscount Milner, whom she would marry after Edward Cecil’s death in 1918……….

Christine Mirabel Charlotte Louise Walker was born in Cheltenham on July 22 1944, the daughter of Richard Walker, who ran the Walker Crossweller engineering company. The firm’s Mira electric shower was named after Mirabel…………..

Bold, playful, generous and funny, Mirabel Walker made many friends, none more important than the journalist and author Virginia Ironside, at whose flat she turned up one day, not entirely fortuitously, just as Hugh Cecil thought he was leaving.

They married in 1972, a match that proved wonderfully fruitful and successful, both in the family they created and the books they wrote……………..

Hugh Cecil died in 2020. In his last years he had been afflicted by a rare illness, progressive supranuclear palsy, which gradually deprived him of movement and affected his speech. Throughout this trauma Mirabel’s love and support were unfailing.

She lived on at Wiveton, delighting in her children and grandchildren, cultivating her garden and still enjoying lunch parties and conversational bravura. Even the onset of cancer failed to extinguish her spirit.

In her final days she was editing, with Robert, Marquess of Salisbury, a book of sermons given at Hatfield House during lockdown by the Reverend Paul Gismondi.

Hugh and Mirabel Cecil had two sons and two daughters. The eldest, Conrad Cecil, is an actor and a devoted Shakespearean. Clementine is a writer and journalist with a special interest in Russia. David is a music and film producer living in Uganda. Stella is an artist and theatre designer.

Mirabel Cecil, born July 22 1944, died October 5 2024