Anne Mary Sibylla Abel Smith (formerly Liddell-Grainger; born 28 July 1932) is a British aristocrat and Christian charity worker. A great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, she was married for 25 years to Scottish politician David Liddell-Grainger and is the mother of Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger. In her sixties, she attended gospel meetings in Kennington, did missionary work in Africa, and was often invited to Royal Ascot and other functions by the Queen.[1]
The couple had five children,[1] including Ian Liddell-Grainger, who became the first direct descendant of Queen Victoria to be elected to the House of Commons in 2001.[3]
In 1963, Anne and her husband took ownership of two Pharaoh hounds while vacationing in Malta. In the following years, they made an effort to try to introduce the breed to the United Kingdom; in 1966, only ten Pharaoh hounds were recorded in the United Kingdom, with the couple owning five at Ayton Castle in Scotland.[10]
She divorced Liddell-Grainger after almost 25 years of marriage in 1981.[1]
Charity work
In a rare interview in 1998, Abel Smith told The Mirror that she was a frequent passenger on board the hospital ship MV Anastasis, paying her own way to join Christian missions to third world countries as a volunteer.[1]