Pamela Harriman

Pamela Beryl Harriman (née Digby; March 20, 1920 – February 5, 1997), also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born American political activist for the Democratic Party, diplomat, and socialite. She married three times: her first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of prime minister Winston Churchill; her third husband was W. Averell Harriman, an American diplomat who also served as Governor of New York. Her only child, Winston Churchill, was named after his famous grandfather. She served as US ambassador to France from 1993 until her death in 1997. Early life Pamela Digby was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby, and his wife, Constance Pamela Alice, the daughter of Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare. She was educated by governesses in the ancestral home at Minterne Magna in Dorset, along with her three younger siblings, and later attended Downham School. Her great-great aunt was the nineteenth-century adventurer and courtesan Jane Digby (1807–1881), notorious for her exotic travels and scandalous personal life. Pamela was to follow in her relative's footsteps, and has been called "the 20th-century's most influential courtesan". Raised amid acres of Dorset farmland and woods, from an early age Pamela was a very good horsewoman. She competed at shows at the International Olympia, Royal Bath and West Show, and local shows at Dorchester and Melplash. She show-jumped a tiny pony called Stardust that did a clear round at Olympia when every fence was above the animal's withers. At the age of seventeen, she was sent to a Munich boarding school for six months. While there she was introduced to Adolf Hitler by Unity Mitford. She subsequently went to Paris, taking some classes at the Sorbonne. Although in her Who's Who biography she identified these classes as "post-graduate" work, she actually never completed a college degree. By 1937, she had returned to Britain.