Ursula d'Abo

Lady Ursula Isabel d'Abo (née Manners, formerly Marreco; 8 November 1916 – 2 November 2017) was an English socialite and aristocrat who served as a maid of honour to the Queen at the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. She received international media attention after a photograph of her from the coronation, standing alongside the British royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, circulated in the news. The reports, focused on her beauty and distinctive widow's peak, led to a famous letter being written to the editor of a newspaper by an American, asking "who is the girl with the widow's peak?", which was later paraphrased as the title of her 2014 memoir, The Girl with the Widow's Peak: The Memoirs. Her comparative youth and beauty to the rest of her travelling company lead to her being nicknamed "the cygnet" by Winston Churchill while she accompanied the king and queen on a royal tour in France in 1938. During World War II Lady Ursula worked as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment before being appointed to a managerial position over 2,000 women employees at the British Manufacture and Research Company's munitions factory in Grantham. In her later life she received attention for her brief relationship with Man Singh II and her long-term affair with J. Paul Getty. Early life Lady Ursula Isabel Manners was born in London on 8 November 1916 to John Manners, Marquess of Granby and Kathleen Tennant. She was the eldest of five children. Her father was the second son and eventual heir of Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland and Violet Lindsay. After the death of her grandfather, her father became the 9th Duke of Rutland. Her mother was the niece of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and a granddaughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet. She was a paternal niece of Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich and Marjorie Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey. Lady Ursula first lived at Wood House, a small farmhouse in Derbyshire, and at a residence in London. She spent a lot of time at the family estates, Haddon Hall and Belvoir Castle, the latter of which she moved to once her father inherited the dukedom in 1925. When she was eight years old she helped her father with the restoration at Haddon Hall, where she discovered medieval frescoes of Saint Christopher in the chapel which had been whitewashed over during the English Reformation.