Lady Alexandra Metcalfe

Lady Alexandra Metcalfe
CBE
Born
Alexandra Naldera Curzon

20 March 1904[1]
London, England
Died7 August 1995(1995-08-07) (aged 91)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1925; div. 1955)​
Children3
Parents
Relatives
Cover of The Viceroy's Daughters, depicting Lady Alexandra Naldera Curzon

Lady Alexandra Naldera Metcalfe CBE (née Curzon; 20 March 1904 – 7 August 1995) was a British aristocrat. She was the third daughter of George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India, and his first wife, the American mercantile heiress, Mary Victoria Leiter. She was named after her godmother, Queen Alexandra and her place of conception, Naldehra, India.

Early life

Alexandra was born in March 1904 and was named after Naldehra, near Shimla. Her mother died in 1906 when Alexandra was only two years old. Her father's Indian servants called her "Baba Sahib", "Baby Master", and she was thereafter best known as "Baba". She and her sisters, Irene ("Nina") and Cynthia ("Cimmie") were brought up at Hackwood Park, Hampshire, and Montacute; their London home, 1 Carlton Gardens in Carlton House Terrace, became a centre of elite social life after Curzon's second marriage to Grace Elvina Duggan in 1917. She was dubbed the "prettiest debutante of the 1922 season".[2]

Adulthood

She was the first love of Prince George, Duke of Kent. However, on 21 July 1925 she married Major Edward Dudley Metcalfe, the Irish-born best friend and equerry of George's older brother, Edward VIII.[3] She was one of a handful of witnesses to Edward's marriage to Wallis Simpson.[4]

The Metcalfes had a son, David (1927–2012), and twin daughters, Dinah (later known as Davina) and Sheilah (later known as Linda), born November 1930, registered at St Georges Hanover Square.

Lady Alexandra had affairs with Jock Whitney, Michael Lubbock, Walter Monckton, and Charles Duncombe, 3rd Earl of Feversham.[citation needed] Before World War II she earned the sobriquet Baba Blackshirt, and for a while played a murky role as a semiwitting go-between for her brother-in-law Oswald Mosley and her other lover at the time, Dino Grandi, Benito Mussolini's ambassador to London, while simultaneously enjoying the romantic devotion of the foreign secretary, Lord Halifax, who was staying at the same Dorchester Hotel as Alexandra and her sister.[2]

The Metcalfes divorced in 1955 but remained close, with Alexandra reportedly resenting any "denigration of her former husband."[5]

Later life

The main thrust of Baba's later life was her tireless efforts for the Save the Children Fund, a commitment that lasted for more than 40 years. Lady Alexandra joined the Save the Children Fund in 1950 and was very active in fund-raising in London. In 1955, she and her husband divorced and she became a member of the fund's governing council. Later she would become chairman of the Overseas Relief and Welfare Committee, which controls all overseas work of the fund. In 1974 she was elected vice-president.[6]

Honours

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for those efforts in 1975.[7][8][9]

Death

She died on 7 August 1995 at age 91 at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. She was the last surviving witness to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.[5]

Alexandra was portrayed in the 1980 seven-episode television mini-series, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, which won the 1980 Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series.

She was portrayed by Flora Montgomery in the four-episode Channel Four (UK) television drama mini-series Mosley in 1998. It was based on the books Rules of the Game and Beyond the Pale by her nephew Nicholas Mosley, Mosley's son.

She was portrayed by Rebecca Saire in season 2 of The Crown, in the episode "Vergangenheit".

She and her two older sisters were the subjects of a biography by Anne de Courcy in The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Stork Visits Curzon Home". San Francisco Call. Vol. 95, no. 112. 21 March 1904. Page 5, column 2. Retrieved 8 February 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  2. ^ a b CARTER, MIRANDA (2 June 2002) "Poor Little Rich Girls", The New York Times – Books. Retrieved 4 April 2007 "Poor Little Rich Girls"
  3. ^ Time Magazine, 8 June 1925.>Time
  4. ^ Bradford, Sarah (9 August 1995). "Lady Alexandra Metcalfe". Independent. London.
  5. ^ a b Bradford, Sarah (8 August 1995). "Obituary: Lady Alexandra Metcalfe". The Independent. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  6. ^ Save the Children archives, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
  7. ^ 1977 Legislative Session: 2nd Session, 31st Parliament, British Columbia, (15 March 1977) Official Report of DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (Hansard). Retrieved 15 March 2007 1977 Legislative Session
  8. ^ de Courcy Anne (2001) The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters Orion Publishing Group, London, ISBN 978-0-06-621061-2 ISBN 0-06-621061-5 The Viceroy's Daughters..., Abstract
  9. ^ Gilmour, David (28 October 2000) "Washing one's mother's linen" a review of THE VICEROY'S DAUGHTERS: THE LIVES OF THE CURZON SISTERS by Anne de Courcy, The Spectator. Retrieved 4 September 2007 a review of THE VICEROY'S DAUGHTERS Archived 10 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Anne de Courcy (2002), The Viceroy's Daughters: the Lives of the Curzon Sisters., Preview, New York: W. Morrow, ISBN 0-06-621061-5

Bibliography

  • Sarah Bradford, (9 August 1995) Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, The Independent, London. Retrieved 9 April 2007 Short Biography