Lady Mary Howick, (1907-2002)

[Michael Rhodes]

Lady Mary Howick, who died 21 March, 2002, aged 94, was widow of the
1st Baron Howick of Glendale, KG, GCMG, GCVO, (Sir Evelyn Baring), UK
High Commissioner in the Union of South Africa for Basutoland,
Bechuanaland & Swaziland, 1944-51, and Governor of Kenya, 1952-59.

She was born 5 May, 1907 as Lady Mary Cecil Grey, elder daughter of
the 5th
Earl Grey, DL, (1879-1963) and his wife Lady Mabel Laura Georgiana
Palmer, CBE, (d. 1958), only daughter of the 2nd Earl of Selborne.

Her younger sister, Elizabeth, born in 1908, married Lt-Col Ronald
Dawnay, of the Coldstream Guards, scion of the Viscounts Downe.

She married 24 April, 1935, the Hon Evelyn Baring, (1903-73), son of
the 1st Earl of Cromer, PC, GCB, OM, GCMG, KCSI, CIE, & his second
wife, Lady Katherine Thynne, daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bath.

Her husband, Chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation,
1963-72; was a Member of The Times Trust; Vice-Pres of the Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine; & Chairman of the British North American
Committee from 1970. He was created a peer in 1960 as Baron Howick of
Glendale, and appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1972. He died 10
March, 1973.

From *Princess Margaret* by Christopher Warwick, (1983): "From the
film, Rock Around the Clock, a new 'in' expression was culled, on
which popular legend maintains was used by the Princess (Margaret) to
bewildering effect during her visit to Kenya. Taking formal leave of
his royal guest, the Governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, was said to have
been left high and dry by Princess Margaret's off-the-cuff remark,
*See you later alligator.* An aide advised the Governor the correct
response, should Her Royal Highness say it again, was, 'In a while
crocodile.' Alas, the Princess assures one that the story is
apocryphal.

Unusually, following her husband's death in 1973, Lady Howick chose
not to be styled either as the Dowager Baroness Howick of Glendale, or
Mary, Baroness Howick of Glendale, but as *Lady Mary Howick.*

She is survived by her son, Charles, 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale, and
by her daughters, the Hon Lady Wakefield and the Hon Elizabeth Gibbs.

The funeral service takes place at St Michael's Church, Howick,
Alnwick, Northumberland, on Wednesday 27 March, 2002, at 2 p.m.

...Michael Rhodes.