+ Lady Hamilton (1919-2005) widow of Sir Michael Hamilton, Kt, MP
Michael Rhodes
Aubrey Hamilton, former Conservative MP for Wellingborough and for
Salisbury, one- time UK Representative to the United Nations General
Assembly, and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary
(Francis Pym) during the Falklands War.
She was born Lavinia Rosalind Ponsonby, in 1919, a daughter of Sir
Charles Edward Ponsonby, 1st Baronet, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks,
1935-50, PPS to the Sec. of State for War, 1940, and PPS to the Foreign
Secretary (Sir Anthony Eden), 1941-45, who was rewarded with a
baronetcy in 1956.
Lavinia was a great-granddaughter of the 2nd Baron De Mauley ( and the
first Baron was a younger son of the 3rd Earl of Bessborough).
Of her siblings, Lavinia's elder sister Priscilla (b. 1913) married the
Premier Baronet of England, Sir Edmund Bacon, KG, 14th Bt; another
sister, Juliet, is wife of the Rt Hon James Ramsden, former Tory MP for
Harrogate,and Government Minister.
She married Michael Hamilton in 1947. Her husband was a son of the Rt
Rev Eric Knightly Chetwode Hamilton, KCVO, sometime Bishop Suffragan of
Shrewsbury, Registrar of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and Dean of
Windsor, by his wife Jessie, daughter of Sir Walter Cassels.
Her husband was Tory MP for Wellingborough, 1959-64, and for Salisbury,
1965-83, who was knighted in 1983.
Home was at Lordington House, Chichester, Sussex.
Lady Hamilton leaves a son, John Ashley Hamilton (b. 1948), and
daughters, Caroline Mary (b. 1950), Susanna (b. 1954, and Jane Lavinia
(b. 1958).
Thanksgiving Service at St Mary's Church, Stoughton nr Lordington on
Wednesday, 2nd March, 2005.
Source: Daily Telegraph, 24 Feb 2005