Margaret Rhodes

During World War II, she worked as a secretary for MI6.^[5][6][7] She was a Woman of the Bedchamber – a mix of lady-in-waiting and companion – to her aunt Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, from 1991 until the latter's death in 2002.^[4]

In the 2000 Birthday Honours Rhodes was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO). She lived in the Garden House, a grace and favour residence in Windsor Great Park.^[4] In the run-up to the Queen's 80th birthday in April 2006, Rhodes gave an interview to the BBC in which she stated her belief that the Queen would not abdicate.^[9]

Her autobiography, The Final Curtsey, was published in 2011.^[6] She was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 3 June 2012.^[10]

Rhodes appeared in seven documentaries about her first cousin Queen Elizabeth II.^{[citation needed]}

On 27 November 2016, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Rhodes had died, aged 91, on 25 November following a short illness.^[3] The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral in the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor Great Park, on 12 December 2016, accompanied by the Duke of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Alexandra, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy.^[11]

On 31 July 1950, she married the writer Denys Gravenor Rhodes (1919–1981), with Princess Margaret as one of the bridesmaids.^[4] The couple had four children and one grandson:^[12]

• Annabel Margaret Rhodes (born 21 February 1952); she married Christopher James Downing Strickland-Skailes in 1978. They have one son. She remarried G. V. Charles Cope in 1986. Annabel was a goddaughter of the Duke of Edinburgh^{[citation needed]} and served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of Princess Margaret.
  • Andrew James Downing Strickland-Skailes (born 1980)
• Victoria Ann Rhodes (born 27 September 1953), a goddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II; married Nicholas Deans (b. 1950 - d. 1991) in 1974. She got remarried to John Michael Pryor in 1999. She has three children with her first husband.
  • Jesse Deans (1977)
  • Oliver Deans (1980)
  • Sebastian Deans (1982)
• Simon John Gravenor Rhodes (born 22 February 1957), a godson of Princess Margaret;^{[citation needed]} married Susan Simon in 1983. Susan was appointed as an extra lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II in July 2017,^[13] and an Extra Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess Royal in January 2024.^[14] They have two children.
  • Emma Rhodes (1985)
  • Camilla Rhodes (1990)
• Michael Andrew Gravenor Rhodes (born 8 June 1960). He is married to Alison Parker and they have one child.
  • Billie Rhodes (1991)