Elizabeth Douglas-Home

The Right Honourable
The Lady Home of the Hirsel
In role
18 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Preceded by Lady Dorothy Macmillan
Succeeded by Mary Wilson
Personal details
Born Elizabeth Hester Alington
(1909-11-06)6 November 1909
Died 13 September 1990(1990-09-13) (aged 80)
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s)
Children 4, including David
Parents

Elizabeth Hester Douglas-Home, Baroness Home of the Hirsel (née Alington; 6 November 1909 – 13 September 1990) was the wife of British statesman Alec Douglas-Home.

Biography

She was born Elizabeth Alington,[1] the second daughter of the Very Rev Cyril Alington[2]—headmaster of Shrewsbury School and Eton College respectively, as well as chaplain to King George V[2]—and his wife, Hester Margaret Lyttelton, daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton.[2] Elizabeth was the first woman to become a fellow (governor) of Eton.

She married Alec Douglas-Home on 3 October 1936.[1] Thanks to her husband acquiring and renouncing various titles she had, according to The Guinness Book of Records, more names successively in her lifetime than any other once-married, British-only woman.[3]

She died on 13 September 1990 at the age of 80.[4] Her husband outlived her by just over five years.[5] They had been married for 53 years.

Styles of address

  • Miss Elizabeth Alington (6 November 1909 – 3 October 1936)
  • Lady Dunglass (her husband's courtesy title, 3 October 1936 – 11 July 1951)
  • The Rt Hon The Countess of Home (11 July 1951 – 23 October 1963)
  • Lady Douglas-Home (as the wife of a knight, 23 October 1963 – 24 December 1974)
  • The Rt Hon The Lady Home of the Hirsel (her husband having been given a life peerage, 24 December 1974 – 13 September 1990)

References

  1. 1 2 Hurd 2004, "Marriage and the Second World War".
  2. 1 2 3 Card 2004.
  3. ↑ Guinness World Records Limited 1984.
  4. ↑ "Confirmation of birthname", rootsweb.ancestry.com, retrieved 2 April 2016
  5. ↑ Hurd 2004, "Retirement".

Sources

  • Blair, Cherie; Haste, Cate (2005), The Goldfish Bowl: Married to the Prime Minister 1955–1997, Vintage, ISBN 978-0099462026
  • Card, Tim (2004). "Alington, Cyril Argentine". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30379. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Guinness Book of Records 1985, Guinness World Records Limited, 19 October 1984, ISBN 978-0851124193
  • Hurd, Douglas (2004). "Home, Alexander Frederick [Alec] Douglas-, fourteenth earl of Home and Baron Home of the Hirsel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Lady Dorothy Macmillan		 Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1963–1964		 Succeeded by
Mary Wilson
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