DAWNAY, Hon Iris (Hon Iris Irene Adele nee PEAKE) 1923-2021
Richard R
She was d of 1st Viscount INGLEBY 1897-1966 and Lady Joan Rachel de Vere CAPELL 1899-1979 d of 7th Earl of ESSEX 1857-1916. She m 1963 as his 2nd w Capt Oliver Payan 1920-88 s of Maj-Gen Guy Payan DAWNAY 1878-1952 (gs of 7th Viscount DOWNE 1812-57, gt gs of 2nd Earl GREY 1764-1845 etc etc) and Cecil BUXTON 1880-1972 (gd of Sir Edward North BUXTON 2nd Bt 1812-58 and gd of 1st Baron LAWRENCE 1811-79 etc etc) and had a a dau
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The press were fascinated by her relationship with the double agent George Blake but Iris insisted she had only gone out with Blake briefly
Iris Dawnay, who has died aged 98, was, as Iris Peake, chief lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret in the 1950s; she carried Princess Margaret’s train at the Coronation and supported her through the stress of her relationship with the divorced courtier Group Captain Peter Townsend.
Renowned for her beauty and charm, Iris Peake also had a brief romance with George Blake, the MI6 officer who later became a double agent and defected to Moscow.
During the war, she had worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), where her duties included making copies of a document so secret that she had to type it in a locked room. Decades later she told her daughter Emma, a scientist, that it contained the phrase “heavy water”, so it was probably about the atomic bomb.
Iris Irene Adele Peake was born on July 23 1923 in London, the eldest of the five children of Osbert Peake and Lady Joan Capell. Her father was a barrister and Conservative MP who joined Churchill’s last cabinet as the first Secretary of State for Pensions and National Insurance, before going to the Lords as the 1st Viscount Ingleby.
Lady Joan’s mother was Adele, Countess of Essex, a beautiful Bostonian who was painted by John Singer Sargent, and whose looks Iris was thought to have inherited.....
.....Iris worked for the Conservative Research Department before being shortlisted for the position of lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.
The interview included a trip to see South Pacific with the princess and her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Iris was appointed in January 1952 and sat next to the King at dinner at Sandringham. His death the next month plunged the court into mourning and forced a house swap, with the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret moving to Clarence House.
At the Coronation, Iris carried Princess Margaret’s train. “I was so proud of Iris, who looked lovely wearing her Aunt Eileen’s beautiful tiara,” Lady Joan wrote, “but the velvet train was very heavy and a great strain on her arms.” The Queen’s train was even longer and heavier, but she had six maids of honour to carry it while Iris Peake handled Princess Margaret’s alone.....
..... later.... Iris Peake resigned from the royal household to marry [Oliver] Dawnay [the Queen Mother's former private secretary], who had left Clarence House for the City in 1956 – and also happened to be a divorcé. Iris became a fond stepmother to his children, James, Caroline and Ivo, and in 1964 she gave birth to Emma.....
After Oliver died in 1988, Iris Dawnay found herself again surrounded by admirers; she was close to Sir John Beith, a former ambassador to Belgium, until his death in 2000....
Ever discreet, Iris said little about Princess Margaret, except that “she was always very kind to me”, though she was interviewed for a documentary shown after the princess’s death in 2002. She also appeared in a 2015 BBC profile of Blake. She was appointed LVO in 1957.
She remained vigorous and elegant into old age, though eventually failing eyesight stopped her reading or doing the Telegraph crossword. When The Crown began on Netflix, she watched it with her daughter and granddaughter, laughing at its inaccuracies.
Iris Dawnay spent her final days listening to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, the music she had danced to in her youth.
Iris Dawnay, born July 23 1923, died November 18 2021