Sacha Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn

The eldest daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips (1909–1980) and his wife, Georgina Wernher (1919–2011),[5] one of her younger sisters was Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster. Her paternal grandparents were Col. Joseph Harold John Phillips and his wife Mary Mercedes Bryce, whose niece Janet Mercedes Bryce (daughter of Major Francis Bryce of Hamilton, Bermuda) married David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, son of Nadejda Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven, sister of Alexandra's grandmother.

Her siblings are:

• Nicholas Harold Phillips (23 August 1947 – 1 March 1991)
• Fiona Mercedes Phillips (born 30 March 1951)
• Marita Phillips (born 28 May 1954)
• Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (born 8 May 1959)

Alexandra grew up at the family home, Checkendon Court, in Oxfordshire ref>http://www.thepeerage.com/p662.htm</ref> and came out at Luton Hoo, the Bedfordshire estate of her maternal grandparents, Lady Zia & Sir Harold Wernher ref>https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-duchess-of-abercorn-obituary-9p7h20kv3</ref>

On 20 October 1966, at the age of 20, Alexandra Anastasia Phillips married James Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton, son of the 4th Duke of Abercorn and Lady Mary Katherine Crichton, in Westminster Abbey. In 1979, James succeeded as the 5th Duke of Abercorn, and moved into the family seat, Baronscourt Castle, near Drumquin, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.[6]

The Duke and Duchess of Abercorn have three children and three grandchildren:

• James Harold Charles Hamilton, Marquess of Hamilton (19 August 1969); married Tanya Marie Nation on 7 May 2004. They have two sons:
  • James Alfred Nicholas Hamilton, Viscount Strabane (30 October 2005)
  • Lord Claud Douglas Harold Hamilton (b. 12 December 2007).
• Lady Sophia Alexandra Hamilton (8 June 1973); married Anthony Loyd on 7 September 2002 and they were divorced in February 2005.
• Lord Nicholas Edward Hamilton (born 5 July 1979); married Tatiana Kronberg on 30 August 2009. They have one daughter.

The Duchess of Abercorn was a close friend of the Duke of Edinburgh, and her sister, the Duchess of Westminster, is a godmother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The Duke of Abercorn was a first cousin of John, 8th Earl Spencer, father of Diana, Princess of Wales, through their mutual ancestor James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn.

The Duchess died on 10 December 2018, at the age of 72.[4]

The Duchess was the founder of the Pushkin Prizes and the Pushkin Trust, promoting art therapy for young people. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for her work with the Pushkin Trust.[7]

The Duchess was the Honorary Secretary of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation in Omagh, County Tyrone, site of a 1998 Real IRA bombing that left 29 people dead (one of whom was pregnant with twins). She was also the patron of the Omagh Community Youth Choir, founded in the aftermath of 1998.

The Duchess was the House Patron of Abercorn House at Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. She also received the Princess Grace Humanitarian Award in 2006.

The Duchess of Abercorn was and her children (as well as her sister, Natalia) are in the line of succession to the British throne as descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover. She was also a descendant of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, and his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was both a tribal prince and a protégé of Peter the Great. It is through their Russian grand ducal father that Alexandra and Natalia are descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover.

The sisters are related to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: their maternal grandmother was born Countess Anastasia de Torby (later Lady "Zia" Wernher), younger morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia (a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia) by his wife, Countess Sophie von Merenberg, morganatic daughter of Prince Nikolaus of Nassau (himself brother of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg) by his wife, Natalya Aleksandrovna, the younger daughter of the renowned Russian poet, Pushkin.

Lady Zia's sister Countess Nadezhda de Torby (or "Nada") was the wife of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, elder maternal uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the prince through their common ancestor, Tsar Nicholas I.

• The Duchess receives The Ireland Fund of Monaco's Princess Grace Humanitarian Award 2006