Hon. Mary Cynthia Burke Roche (1934-2023)
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Source: The Telegraph, 7 March 2023
She was great-aunt of the Prince of Wales.
Edmund Burke ROCHE, cr 1856 Baron Fermoy [I] (Aug 1815-17 Sep 1874); m.22 Aug 1848 Eliza Caroline Boothby (d.26 Apr 1897)
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James Boothby Burke, 3rd Lord Fermoy (28 Jul 1851-30 Oct 1920); m.22 Sep 1880 (div 1891) Frances Work (d.Jan 1947)
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Edmund Maurice Burke, 4th Lord Fermoy (15 May 1885-8 Jul 1955); m.17 Sep 1931 Ruth Sylvia Gill (d.1993)
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Mary Cynthia Burke (1 Aug 1934-3 Mar 2023); m.1st 25 Nov 1954 (div 1966) Hon. Anthony George Berry [later, Hon. Sir Anthony Berry] (12 Feb 1925-k.Brighton by IRA bombing 12 Oct 1984), son of Viscount Kemsley; m.2nd Jul 1973 (div 1980) Denis Roche Geoghegan; m.3rd 1981 (div 1989) Michael Robert Fearon Gunningham
Richard R
From the Telegraph of 7 March 2023: ROCHE The Hon Mary Cynthia Burke Roche, peacefully at home on 3rd March, aged 88.
She was (gt aunt of The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Sussex) d of 4th Baron FERMOY 1885-1955 and Ruth Sylvia DCVO OBE 1908-93 d of Col William Smith GILL 1865-1957and Ruth 1879-1964 d of David LITTLEJOHN 1841-1924 and Jane CROMBIE 1843-1917 (3xgt gd of Sir John FORBES of Monymusk 3rd Bt d c1713). She m 1st 1954 (div 1966) as his 1st w Hon Sir Anthony George BERRY 1925-84 s of 1st Viscount KEMSLEY 1883-1968, and had a son and three daus. She m 2nd 1973 (div 1980) Denis Roche GEOGHEGAN 1927-2017. She m 3rd 1981 (div 1989) Michael Robert Fearon GUNNINGHAM c1924-2019.
colinp
Princess Diana’s aunt whose restless spirit led to travelling, business ventures and a biography of her father Lord Fermoy
Mary Roche’s business career was a fleeting one: she briefly went into partnership with Mark Birley, the entrepreneur behind Annabel’s nightclub, to acquire the British franchise for Hermès luxury goods and for a short time owned a small airline carrying passengers on safari around Kenya. Yet her role in British society came from being the aunt of Princess Diana, making her great-aunt to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex.......
Mary Cynthia Burke Roche was born in Peterculter, near Aberdeen, in 1934, the eldest daughter of Maurice Roche, the 4th Baron Fermoy, and his wife Ruth (née Gill), a Scottish musician who founded the King’s Lynn music festival and was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Ruth was believed to have encouraged the romance between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
The Fermoy barony, a title in the Irish peerage, was created in the 1850s for Edmond Roche, sometime MP for Co Cork and a distant relative of Edmund Burke, the economist and philosopher.
Maurice Roche and his twin brother Frank were brought up in America, in the gilded world of Newport, Rhode Island, society. Their maternal grandfather, Frank Work, had made a fortune in the US working with the business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. A condition of Maurice’s inheritance was that he should retain the name Work and never travel to Europe nor marry a European, edicts he defied on succeeding to the peerage in 1920. He rented Park House, Sandringham, from the royal family and was a member of George VI’s shooting party on the day before the King’s death.
Mary’s siblings were Frances (later Shand Kydd, Diana’s mother, and Edmund, who in 1955 became the 5th Lord Fermoy on the death of their father. On the night of her 50th birthday she was staying with Edmund when he took his own life.
Roche, who was a goddaughter of Queen Mary, was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot, and St Paul’s Girls School before studying Italian and art history in Florence. She played the piano and guitar and was a debutante in 1952. She and her sister both married in 1954, six months apart: Frances to Viscount Althorp, heir to the earldom of Spencer, and Mary to Anthony Berry, younger son of Viscount Kemsley, the newspaper proprietor. Their wedding, which was previewed by her appearance on the cover of Country Life magazine, took place in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in the presence of the Queen Mother......The marriage was formally dissolved in 1966 and Berry, who remarried and became Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, was killed by the IRA in the Brighton bombing in October 1984. Roche is survived by their children: Alexandra, who trained as a teacher; twin daughters Antonia, who worked in the health sector, and Jo, who founded the conflict-resolution charity Building Bridges for Peace (and who met her father’s killer). and Edward, who works in the food and drink industry. The princes, William and Harry, were pages at Edward’s wedding in 1989. Roche became a mature student and took a degree in classics from University College London. There she met Denis Geoghegan, a divorced tutor, and they were married in 1973. Yet he preferred his solitude, his thesis and his flute, and the marriage was dissolved in 1980; he went on to become a monk. Meanwhile, she retrained as a teacher and worked at Mary Datchelor School in Camberwell, south London. Soon she met Michael Gunningham, head of classics at a Jesuit school in north London. They were married in 1981 and settled in Hertfordshire. However, her desire for independence prevailed once more and the marriage was dissolved after eight years.............