BUTTER, Lady (Myra Alice nee WERNHER) 1925-2022
Richard R
She was d of Maj-Gen Sir Harold WERNHER 3rd & final Bt 1893-1973 and Lady (Anastasia Michailovna) Zia CBE 1892-1977 d of Grand Duke Michael Michailovitch of Russia 1861-1929 (gs of Tsar NICHOLAS I 1796-1855). She m 1946 Maj Sir David Henry BUTTER KCVO 1920-2010 sometime head of that Scots gentry family of Pitlochry, and had a son and four daus.
www.lordmountbattenofburma.com
Lady Butter's aunt was Countess Nadejda 'Nada' Mikhailovna de Torby, who was married to George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, formerly HSH Prince George of Battenberg (the elder brother of Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten' of Burma). Lady Butter's elder sister was Georgina 'Gina', Lady Kennard, whose first husband Lt-Col Harold 'Bunny' Phillips, was a former lover of Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma.
And to add to the complicated links... Lt-Col Phillip's mother was Mary Mercedes Bryce, who was the aunt of Janet Mercedes Bryce, who married as his second wife David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven (son of Nada, Marchioness of Milford Haven - Lady Butter's aunt as above)
www.lordmountbattenofburma.com
colinp
Richard R
colinp
She was by Princess Elizabeth’s side in childhood and shared her passion for horses, having several big wins with Henry Cecil
Lady Butter, CVO, who has died aged 97, was one of the last people to have known Prince Philip as a small boy, and she became well known to television viewers in many royal documentaries; it could be said that the mantle of the Queen’s cousin Margaret Rhodes, after her death in 2016, fell on to Lady Butter as she had witnessed so much of royal life.
Myra Butter once observed that the Queen Mother had hoped that Princess Elizabeth would marry a Grenadier Guard – many of whom, such as the future Duke of Grafton, were stationed at Windsor Castle during the war. But Elizabeth had set her heart on marrying Philip....
Myra, who was a descendant of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, was the daughter of Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt, from the South African diamond family, and Lady Zia (Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby), daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, a great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I.
Having pursued and been rejected by Princess May of Teck, Princess Irene of Hesse and Princess Louise (daughter of Edward VII), Grand Duke Michael had entered into a morganatic alliance with Countess Sophia Nikolaievna von Merenberg (Countess de Torby). They lived in England, variously at Keele Hall in Staffordshire and at Kenwood House in Hampstead, and also in the south of France.
Lady Zia married Sir Harold in 1917, and they had a son, who was killed in the Second World War, and two daughters. Myra’s elder sister, Georgina (Gina), married, first, Harold “Bunny” Phillips, former lover of Edwina Mountbatten, and secondly, Sir George “Loopy” Kennard. Through her mother, Myra was a first cousin of David, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, Prince Philip’s best man in 1947.
Myra Alice Wernher was born in Edinburgh on March 18 1925 and was brought up at Thorpe Lubenham Hall in Leicestershire. Princess Elizabeth was a childhood friend, and first came for tea when she was two and a half; the young Philip was also a regular visitor at Christmas time....
On March 5 1946, at St Margaret’s, Westminster, she married Major David Butter, MC, the descendant of a 12th-century Highland chieftain. He was a major in the Scots Guards and had been wounded in Italy; he was knighted in 1991, and was Lord Lieutenant of Perthshire between 1975 and 1995).
Police had to control a crowd of 700 in Parliament Square, and the wedding was attended by Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Princess Marina, with Princess Alexandra as a bridesmaid and Prince Michael as a page, carrying the train. Prince Philip and his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece, were also present, as were the Mountbattens....
The Butters lived at their family stronghold, Cluniemore, on the banks of the Tummel, a tributary of the Tay. There she created a much-admired garden and hillside woodland landscape, and grew what those in the know regarded as the best begonias and fuschias in Perthshire.
The estate became a haven for the Duke of Kent when he was courting Katharine Worsley, and for Princess Alexandra when she began dating Sir Angus Ogilvy...
In 1987 Myra Butter was instrumental in establishing the Pushkin Prize, a creative writing competition for Scottish schoolchildren, to mark the 150th anniversary of Alexander’s death....
In 1998 she was invited back to Russia for the reburial of the remains of the last Tsar’s family at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg; she said the Russian delegation were as interested in her Pushkin ancestry as her Romanov roots. In 2018 she was awarded the Medal of Pushkin for her work with the Prize but returned it in March 2022 in protest at the invasion of Ukraine....
Myra Butter, who was godmother to the Duke of Kent’s daughter Helen, was appointed CVO in 1992, and was a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. The Queen and Prince Philip both attended her 90th birthday celebrations in 2015.
The Butters had four daughters and a son; Sandra, the eldest child, was a bridesmaid to the Duchess of Kent in 1961; Georgina was a bridesmaid to Princess Alexandra, while Marilyn married the Earl of Dalhousie, Lord Steward of the Household.
Sir David Butter died in 2010, and Myra is survived by their children.
Lady Butter, born March 18 1925, died July 29 2022
sven_me...@web.de
Richard R
Close friend of the Queen and cousin of Prince Philip who brought to Scotland an award in memory of her forebear Pushkin
On her 90th birthday, a party was held for Myra Butter at Brooks’s club in London. The guest of honour was her close friend the Queen, who was just one year younger. As the party ended, the two stood reminiscing about their childhood days.
There was no doubting that this was a meeting of royalty. The Queen, of course, was of the Hanoverian succession, but Lady Butter could trace her ancestry back, through the Romanovs, to Tsar Nicholas I, and also to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Her great grandfather was the Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich, governor-general of the Caucasus, who claimed four ruling emperors of Russia among his family. Her forebears stretched back to Peter the Great.
She had known Prince Philip at least as long as the Queen, because he, as a boy, used to spend his holidays at the family home in Northamptonshire...
...Her godmother was Crown Princess Louise of Sweden. At her wedding in 1946, attended by Queen Mary and the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, her page was Prince Michael of Kent, her bridesmaid Princess Alexandra...
...Myra Alice Wernher was born in 1925, the younger daughter of Major General Sir Harold and Lady Zia Wernher, and was brought up with her brother Alex and sister Gina at the family home, Thorpe Lubenham near Market Harborough, where her cousin, the young Philip Mountbatten, was a regular visitor...
...Lady Zia was the Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby, whose mother, Countess Sophie, was Pushkin’s grand-daughter and was married to Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich, son of the governor-general of the Caucasus, and Nicholas I’s grandson...
...As the war ended, she met Major David Butter of the 2nd Battalion the Scots Guards...The couple were married in 1946 and went to live in Perthshire, where the Butters could trace their ancestry back to the 12th century...
...They had five children: Sandra, Marilyn, Rohays, Georgina and Charles, all of whom lead private lives. The Queen is godmother to Sandra; Princess Alexandra is godmother to Georgina. Butter’s husband, David (obituary, June 16, 2010), who was lord lieutenant of the county, was appointed KCVO in 1991. He died in 2010...
...A fine mimic, she and David would frequently entertain friends to a hilarious double act, which was also much appreciated when they went “over the hill”, as they described it, to Balmoral...
Lady Butter CVO was born on March 8, 1925. She died on July 29, 2022, aged 97
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lady-butter-obituary-bvbkj7rnp
