Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVOThe Royal Victorian Order
is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognizing distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms,
any members of her family, or any of her...
(born March 31, 1920,
Asthall ManorAsthall Manor is a gabled Jacobean Cotswold manor house in Asthall, Oxfordshire. It was built in about 1620 and altered and enlarged in about 1916The house was the childhood home of the Mitford sisters.-History:...
,
OxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
),
née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford and known to her family as
"Debo", is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted
MitfordThe Mitford family is an aristocratic English family that traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman Conquest. The main family line had seats at Mitford Castle, Mitford Old Manor House and from 1828, the newly built Mitford Hall. Several heads of the family served as High...
sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mitford married
Lord Andrew CavendishAndrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, KG, MC, PC , known as Lord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 and as Marquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British Conservative politician...
, younger son of the
10th Duke of DevonshireEdward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, KG, MBE , known as Marquess of Hartington , was the head of the Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family...
, in 1941.
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVOThe Royal Victorian Order
is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognizing distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms,
any members of her family, or any of her...
(born March 31, 1920,
Asthall ManorAsthall Manor is a gabled Jacobean Cotswold manor house in Asthall, Oxfordshire. It was built in about 1620 and altered and enlarged in about 1916The house was the childhood home of the Mitford sisters.-History:...
,
OxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
),
née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford and known to her family as
"Debo", is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted
MitfordThe Mitford family is an aristocratic English family that traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman Conquest. The main family line had seats at Mitford Castle, Mitford Old Manor House and from 1828, the newly built Mitford Hall. Several heads of the family served as High...
sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mitford married
Lord Andrew CavendishAndrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, KG, MC, PC , known as Lord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 and as Marquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British Conservative politician...
, younger son of the
10th Duke of DevonshireEdward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, KG, MBE , known as Marquess of Hartington , was the head of the Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family...
, in 1941. She was then known as
Lady Andrew Cavendish. When Cavendish's older brother,
William, Marquess of HartingtonWilliam John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington , English, was the eldest son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire and Mary Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. He was the husband of Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, sister of future U.S. President John F...
, was killed in combat in 1944, Cavendish became heir to the dukedom, and Deborah became the
Marchioness of Hartington. When the 10th Duke died in 1950, Lord Andrew Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington became the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah the
Duchess of Devonshire.
Alongside her late husband, the Duchess was the main public face of
ChatsworthChatsworth House is a large country house at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England 3½ miles north east of Bakewell . It is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, and has been home to their family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...
for many decades, and has continued this role in her widowhood, now primarily in partnership with her grandson, William Cavendish,
Earl of BurlingtonEarl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation was for Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork, on 20 March 1664...
, who seems to play a more public role than his father, the
12th DukePeregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire, KCVO, CBE , is a British peer. He is the only surviving son of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, the former Deborah Mitford. He succeeded to the dukedom following the death of his father on 3 May 2004...
.
She has written several books about Chatsworth, and has played a key role in the restoration of the house, the enhancement of the garden and the development of commercial activities such as Chatsworth Farm Shop (which is on a quite different scale from most farm shops as it employs a hundred people); Chatsworth's other retail and catering operations; and assorted offshoots such as Chatsworth Food, which sells luxury foodstuffs which carry her signature and Chatsworth Design which sells image rights to items and designs from the Chatsworth collections. Recognising the commercial imperatives of running a stately home, she takes a very active role and has been known to run the ticket office for Chatsworth House herself. She also supervised the development of the Cavendish Hotel at
BaslowBaslow is a village in the Derbyshire, England, Peak District, lying between Sheffield and Bakewell. It is situated on the River Derwent just north of Chatsworth House. A seventeenth century bridge spans the river in the village, alongside which is a contemporary toll house...
near Chatsworth and the Devonshire Arms Hotel at
Bolton AbbeyBolton Abbey is the estate within which is located the ruined 12th-century Augustinian Bolton Priory in North Yorkshire, England. It gives its name to the parish of Bolton Abbey.-Bolton Priory:...
.
In 1999 she was appointed a Dame Commander of the
Royal Victorian OrderThe Royal Victorian Order
is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognizing distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms,
any members of her family, or any of her...
(DCVO) by Queen
Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
, for her service to the
Royal Collection TrustThe Royal Collection Trust is a British charitable body established in 1993 by the Queen under the Chairmanship of Prince Charles to manage the Royal Collection of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom....
. She became the
DowagerA dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....
Duchess of Devonshire in 2004 when her son inherited the dukedom upon the death of her husband.
In an interview with John Preston of the
Daily Telegraph, published in September 2007, she recounted having tea with
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
during a visit to
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
in June 1937, when she was visiting
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
with her mother and her sister
UnityUnity Valkyrie Mitford , was one of the noted Mitford sisters. She was a prominent supporter of fascism and friend of Adolf Hitler.- Childhood :...
, the latter being the only one of the three who spoke German and, therefore, the one who carried on the entire conversation with Hitler. Shortly before ending the interview, she was asked to choose with whom she would have preferred to have tea: American singer
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
, or Hitler. Looking at the interviewer with astonishment, she answered: "Well Elvis of course! What an extraordinary question".
She has three surviving children: the
12th DukePeregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire, KCVO, CBE , is a British peer. He is the only surviving son of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, the former Deborah Mitford. He succeeded to the dukedom following the death of his father on 3 May 2004...
,
Lady Sophia TopleyThe Lady Sophia Louise Sydney Topley is the third child and second daughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Deborah Mitford...
, and Lady Emma Cavendish. She is the grandmother of the fashion model
Stella TennantStella Tennant is a Scottish model. The granddaughter of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who was one of the Mitford family and a fourth cousin once-removed of Diana, Princess of Wales, Tennant was born in Scotland and attended St Leonards School in St Andrews. Her parents are The Hon...
and a maternal aunt of
Max MosleyMax Rufus Mosley is president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide...
, current president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
Titles from birth
- The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons.-Australia:...
Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford (1920–1941)
- Lady Andrew Cavendish (1941–1944)
- Marchioness of Hartington (1944–1950)
- Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire (1950–2004)
- Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (2004–present)
Books written by the Duchess
- Chatsworth: The House (1980; revised edition 2002)
- The Estate: A View from Chatsworth (1990)
- The Farmyard at Chatsworth (1991) — for children
- Treasures of Chatsworth: A Private View (1991)
- The Garden at Chatsworth (1999)
- Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts (2002) — essays.
- The Chatsworth Cookery Book (2003)
- Round and About Chatsworth (2005)
- Memories of Andrew Devonshire (2007)
- Home to Roost . . . and Other Peckings (2009)
- She has also contributed to The Spectator.
- She wrote the introduction to Diana Mitford
Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley , was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters. She was married first to Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne, and secondly to Sir Oswald Mosley , leader of the British Union of Fascists; her second marriage, in 1936, took place at the home of Joseph Goebbels,...
's 2008 collection of journalism; The Pursuit of LaughterThe Pursuit of Laughter is a 2008 collection of diaries, articles, reviews and portraits by Diana Mitford. The book was published by Gibson Square and edited by Martin Rynja. Mitford's sister, Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire provides the introduction...
.
External links