Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill

Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill (14 October 1898 – 17 September 1956) was the younger son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his first wife, the former Consuelo Vanderbilt, an American railroad heiress. His elder brother, John, was the 10th Duke of Marlborough. Early life Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill was born on 14 October 1898. He was the second son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and Consuelo Vanderbilt. In 1921, his parents divorced when he was 22 years old. His father later wed the former Gladys Deacon; while his mother went on to marry Col. Jacques Balsan. His mother was the only daughter and eldest child of William Kissam Vanderbilt, a New York railroad millionaire, and his first wife, the Mobile, Alabama born Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933), who later married Oliver Belmont. His mother's name was in honour of her godmother, Consuelo Yznaga (1853–1909), a half-Cuban, half-American socialite who created a social stir a year earlier when she married the fortune-hunting George, Viscount Mandeville. Spencer-Churchill was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford.