Ernestine Bowes-Lyon
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19 December 1891
Ernestine Bowes-Lyon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ernestine Hester Maude Bowes-Lyon 19 December 1891 Glamis Castle, Scotland |
| Died | 6 January 1981 (aged 89) Navarrenx, France |
| Title | Baroness de Longueuil |
| Spouse | Ronald Charles Grant, 10th Baron de Longueuil |
| Children | Raoul Grant Raymond Grant, 11th Baron de Longueuil |
| Parent(s) | Hon. Ernest Bowes-Lyon Isobel Hester Drummond |
Ernestine Hester Maude Bowes-Lyon, Baroness de Longueuil (19 December 1891 – 6 January 1981)[1] was born at Glamis Castle in Scotland, one of five children; her father Ernest Bowes-Lyon (son of the 13th Earl of Strathmore) died eight days after her birth, two days after Christmas, in a riding accident. He was a diplomat serving as a consul in Belgrade. Her mother was a Drummond, of the family of Drummonds Bank.
Ernestine was born on 19 December 1891 as the youngest daughter of Ernest Bowes-Lyon (1858–1891) and his wife, Isobel Hester Drummond (1860–1945). She grew up at Glamis Castle along with her younger cousin Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and learnt to drive a coach and four down Glamis drive. During her early years she met and learned from poets, writers, philosophers, and other intelligentsia. Writer P. G. Wodehouse, in particular, remained a friend and correspondent until his death; one of his last letters written was to her.[2] Wodehouse dedicated his book The Pothunters to Ernestine Bowes-Lyon.
Marriages
In 1910, she married Francis Winstone Scott (1882–1948), and had two sons. They were divorced in 1918.[3][4] Her second marriage was to Ronald Grant de Longueuil, 10th Baron de Longueuil (13 March 1888 – 12 July 1959), whom she first met at the Christmas Ball of the Tate family, (Tate Gallery) in December 1913. Their elopement was the cause of some scandal. She accompanied him to the Western Front, where she worked as a nursing assistant. They were reunited after the declaration of the Armistice. He, war-weary and uncertain of his future, asked her to return to her family. In protest at this, she shot herself in the chest with a revolver, but survived with the bullet lodged by her heart. In hospital she informed him that she was pregnant. Ronald and Ernestine moved to the chateau of Sus, near Navarrenx in the south west of France. Raoul Charles was born in 1919, and Raymond de Longueuil in 1921. Raoul became a naval aviator, and was killed over the North Sea in 1942 in pursuit of the Nazi Tirpitz Battleship. Raymond, the second born, inherited the title Baron de Longueuil.[5]