Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, DCVO (born Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford 31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014) was an English aristocrat, writer, memoirist, and socialite. She was the youngest and last-surviving of the six Mitford sisters, who were prominent members of British society in the 1930s and 1940s.
Known to her family as "Debo", Deborah Mitford was born in her parents' home, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England. Her parents were David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (1878–1958), son of Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, the noted Japanologist, antiquarian and author, and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP. In 1940 she accompanied her mother to Bern, Switzerland, to collect Unity, Deborah's older sister, who had injured herself in a failed suicide attempt. Debo and her mother were afforded special clearance facilities to bring Unity back to England by train across France. She appears in numerous newsreels of the time.
Deborah married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, in 1941. When Cavendish's older brother, William, Marquess of Hartington, was killed in action in 1944, Cavendish became the heir to the Dukedom and began to use the courtesy title Marquess of Hartington. In 1950, upon the death of his father, the Marquess of Hartington became the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and Deborah his Duchess.
The Duchess was the main public face of Chatsworth for many decades. She wrote several books about Chatsworth, and played a key role in the restoration of the house, the enhancement of the garden and the development of commercial activities such as the 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 (later Chatsworth Estate Trading), which sold luxury foodstuffs carrying 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 took a very active role and was known on occasions to man the Chatsworth House ticket office herself. She also supervised the development of the Cavendish Hotel at Baslow, near Chatsworth, and the Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Abbey.[1]
In 1999, the Duchess was appointed a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) by Queen Elizabeth II, for her services to the Royal Collection Trust. Upon the death of her husband in 2004, her son Peregrine Cavendish became the 12th Duke of Devonshire by hereditary right. She became the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire at this point and moved into a smaller house on the Chatsworth estate.[2]
Sources
- ↑ "Last of the Mitfords: 'Debo', Dowager Duchess of Devonshire dies at 94". https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/obituaries/last-mitfords-debo-dowager-duchess-devonshire-dies-94-1834155.
- ↑ "Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - obituary". The Telegraph. 19 March 2016. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/03/19/dowager-duchess-of-devonshire---obituary/.
- Guinness, Jonathan (Lord Moyne) & Catherine, The House of Mitford, Hutchinson, London, 1984, ISBN: 0-09-155560-4.
- Devonshire, Deborah, Countess of, Home to Roost, edited by Charlotte Mosley, John Murray pubs., London, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-84854-189-4.
- Mosley, Lady Diana, A Life of Contrasts (autobiography). Gibson Square Books, London, revised edition 2002, ISBN: 1-903933-20-X. Many references to Deborah (see index).
