STRATHMORE & KINGHORNE, Rt Hon Mary, Countess of (Mary Pamela nee McCORQUODALE) 1932-2025
Richard R
She was d of Brig Norman Duncan MCCORQUODALE 1898-1971 scion of that gentry family f/o Cound Hall (whose 1st cousin Alexander George McCorquodale was husband of the novelist Barbara Cartland and father of Raine sometime Countess of Spencer and Countess de Chambrun, having 1st m the future 9th Earl of Dartmouth) and Barbara Helen 1899-1978 d of Capt John Julius Jersey DE KNOOP 1876-1916 and Evelyn Elizabeth MBE 1879-1968 d of Charles John FLETCHER 1843-1914 sometime head of that gentry family f/o Dale Park and Helen 1851-1917 d of Arthur Edward KNOX c1808-1880 and Lady Jane PARSONS 1813-83 d of 2nd Earl of ROSSE 1758-1841 and Alice 1779-1867 d of John LLOYD sometime head of that Irish gentry family co Offaly and Jane LE HUNTE of that Irish gentry family of Artramont. She m 17th Earl of STRATHMORE & KINGHORNE 1928-87 (The late Queen Mother's nephew and The KING is his 1st cousin once removed), and had
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Ancestry of Jersey de Knoop.
1. Jersey v. Knoop
*6.3.1876 Manchester
gefallen 7.8.1916 Kantara, Ägypten
2. Andreas WILHELM Freiherr v. Knoop [Preuß. persönl. Freiherrenstand,
Wilhelmshöhe 17.8.1896, Diplom Neues Palais bei Potsdam 2.11.1896]
Kaufmann u. Mitinhaber der Baumwoll-Importfirma Knoop, Jersey & Co. in
Manchester, Bremen u. Russland
*1.1.1851 Manchester
+6.10.1901 Wiesbaden
oo I. 14.4.1875 Manchester, o|o 1898 Manchester
3. Frieda Köcher
*30.8.1855 Manchester
4. Karl JULIUS Gerhard Freiherr v. Knoop [Preuß. Adelsstand 9.11.1877
Letzlingen, Preuß. persönl. Freiherrenstand 24.11.1887 Berlin, Diplom
Berlin 3.2.1888]
Kaufmann u. Chef des Großhandlungshauses Jersey & Co. in Manchester
*17.11.1822 Bremen
+6.4.1893 Wiesbaden
oo 7.5.1847 Cheltenham
5. Theodore Frerichs
*20.2.1826 Bremen
+17.6.1902 Wiesbaden
SOURCE
GHdA, AB VI (1964), 192
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colinp
The Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, gregarious chatelaine of Glamis Castle
Among her many friends were several Nasa astronauts: ‘I think I must be the only granny in Great Britain who’s had a call from outer space’
The Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, who has died aged 92, succeeded with her husband in turning Glamis Castle into a liveable family home, and later into one of Scotland’s leading tourist attractions.
When in 1956 she married Captain Fergus Bowes Lyon, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, the castle of Glamis – childhood home of the Queen Mother – was not an inheritance she was expecting. It had passed to the Queen Mother’s eldest brother Patrick, who became the 15th Earl, and then to his son Timothy, the 16th Earl.
But when Timothy died unexpectedly in 1972, aged 54, the next in line was his first cousin Fergus (son of another brother of the Queen Mother), who by then was working as a stockbroker in Edinburgh; he duly succeeded as the 17th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne […]
The youngest of three children, Mary Pamela McCorquodale was born on May 31 1932 at her grandparents’ house in London. Her father was Brigadier Norman McCorquodale MC, of the McCorquodale printing family; her mother was Barbara, née de Knoop [….]
In 1987 […] her husband Fergus died of a heart attack, aged 58. The role she had never sought, but had found such a flair for, was suddenly redundant. Her son Mikie suggested she should carry on as before for another five years, rather than any abrupt transition, a gesture she much appreciated. In 1991 she moved to the dower house at Glamis, where she spent a happy 18 years, before moving to Melrose in the Borders to be closer to her daughters.
A pillar of the county of Angus, she was a Deputy Lieutenant in 1989, and a doughty supporter of numerous good causes including the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Age Concern, Cancer Relief, the Day Care Committee for the Elderly, the Nursing Benevolent Fund, the Brittle Bone Society and the Child Psychotherapy Trust.
She enjoyed the theatre and theatrical life, and was delighted to befriend the crews whenever the BBC came to film at Glamis. She was also a supporter of the Whitehall Theatre, Tayside Symphony Orchestra and the National Theatre of Scotland.
One friend recalled her as “a walking treasury of history, life, experience and wisdom.” Having been steered away from formal examinations as a child, she was very proud in 2002 to be created an honorary Doctor of Laws by Dundee University.
She is survived by her two daughters, Lady Elizabeth Leeming and Lady Diana Godfrey-Faussett; her son, the 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, died in 2016.
The Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, born May 31 1932, died April 28 2025
colinp
The King was represented by the Earl of Airlie, KT at a Service of Thanksgiving for the Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne which took place at St Fergus Kirk, Glamis, Angus, this afternoon.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were represented by the Earl of Dalhousie.
The Princess Royal was represented by Mrs David Bowes-Lyon
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colinp
malcolm davies
bx...@yahoo.com
Richard R
The Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne obituary
Gregarious chatelaine of Glamis who with her retainer Tosh set about clearing the castle of junk and boosting visitor numbers, dies aged 92
… Her friendliness and cheerfulness as the chatelaine of Glamis was a boon after an unhappy phase at this fabled seat of Macbeth and the rumoured birthplace of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The castle’s previous occupant was the kindly but reclusive Timothy Strathmore, who was dogged by ill health and misfortune after succeeding his father, the Queen Mother’s eldest brother Patrick, as the 16th earl in 1949. His only child, a daughter born in December 1959, lived less than a month after contracting pneumonia during the long winter journey from London to Glamis. His wife, a former member of the earl’s nursing team, died from an overdose of barbiturates in 1967. The earl himself succumbed to a coronary thrombosis five years later.
The resulting gloomy atmosphere at the castle was soon banished after the succession in 1972 of Fergus Bowes Lyon, another nephew of the Queen Mother, and his gregarious wife Mary although the new countess was initially so filled with dread at the thought of what lay ahead that she could not bring herself to enter Glamis, momentarily agreeing with her five-year-old daughter Diana, who firmly said, “I am not going to sleep in that horrid old castle.”
… The youngest of three children, Mary Pamela McCorquodale was born in 1932 at her grandparents’ house in Mayfair and spent her early childhood at Braehead House, just west of Edinburgh. Her father, Brigadier Norman McCorquodale MC, was a regular in the Royal Scots Greys but left the army in 1938 to join the family printing firm, McCorquodale & Co.
… The family moved south to Winslow Hall in Buckinghamshire — one of the few private houses attributed to Sir Christopher Wren — which Mary’s father had inherited… With her father away serving in the Scottish Horse, her mother Barbara (née de Knoop) ran the farm and dairy and Mary learnt to milk a cow at an early age.
… After being taught at home by a governess, she was sent to board at Brondesbury-at-Stocks, near Tring, where the girls took their own ponies and learnt such vital lessons as how not to cross their knees when sitting down, only their ankles. But Mary also developed a love of history thanks to an inspiring teacher known as “The Ram” and remembered their headmistress impressing on the girls that they were ambassadors for their country whenever they went abroad.
After leaving Brondesbury aged 17 in the spring of 1949, she was “finished” in Paris that summer and then enrolled at the Wychlea House of Domestic Science to learn how to cook and keep house, writing essays on such subjects as “The Theory of Dirt”. In 1950 she was presented at Buckingham Palace to King George VI.
It was on a trip to Germany in 1955 that she first met Fergus Bowes Lyon, who was serving as a captain in the Scots Guards. Bowes Lyon was his cousin’s heir apparent [sic], although when they married in 1956 Timothy Strathmore was still only 38 and so the prospect of inheriting seemed remote. However, he did offer them the White House on the Glamis estate as a weekend home.
… When Lord Strathmore died from a heart attack while walking up grouse at Glamis in 1987, he was succeeded in the earldom by their 30-year-old son Michael, known as Mikie, at whose suggestion she stayed on as chatelaine of Glamis until 1991. She later moved to Glamis House for a further 18 years…
… Mikie died of cancer in 2016, another sad blow for his mother, but which again showed her resilience and determinedly positive outlook. She had by then moved to Melrose in the Borders to be nearer her daughters, Lady Elizabeth Leeming and Lady Diana Godfrey-Faussett, and where, fizzing with energy and chat into her nineties, she made many devoted new friends.
The Dowager Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the former chatelaine of Glamis Castle, was born on May 31, 1932. She died on April 28, 2025, aged 92
https://www.thetimes.com/article/d5c6716b-e85f-4206-86fe-2b221f2140ee