David Bowes-Lyon

Who was David Bowes-Lyon?

Honourable Sir David Bowes-Lyon KCVO was the sixth son of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and Cecilia Nina Cavendish-Bentinck. His sister Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married Prince Albert, the second son of King George V, in 1923 and became Queen Consort on the abdication of her husband´s brother King Edward VIII in 1936.

On 6 February 1929, he married Rachel Pauline Clay and they had two children:

Davina Katherine Bowes-Lyon

Simon Alexander Bowes-Lyon

During World War II, Bowes-Lyon was a member of the secret propaganda department Political Warfare Executive. He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1950 and Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire from 1 July 1952 until his death. Also, he became President of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1953. In 1960, he commanded the third World Orchid Conference.

He died at his sister's home, Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, of a heart attack after suffering from hemiplegia. The Queen Mother discovered him dead in bed. The funeral was held at Ballater, and he was buried at St Paul's Walden Bury.