The only child of the Marquess and Marchioness of Cambridge, Lady Mary Cambridge has announced her engagement to Mr. Peter Whitley, son of Sir Norman Whitley, chairman of the Uganda Cotton Industry Commission, and Lady Whitley.
Lady Mary is a second cousin of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, her father being the King's first cousin, and was a bridesmaid at Princess Elizabeth's wedding. She enjoys riding, sailing and other open air pursuits, and during the war was in the V.A.D. Both Lady Mary and her fiance are twenty-six years of age. Her grandfather, the first Marquess of Cambridge, was a brother of Queen Mary
Bridal party and guests had to pass through farmyard to reach All Saints' Church, Kirtling, Cambridgeshire, yesterday for the wedding of Lady Mary Cambridge and Mr Peter Whitley. Lady Mary, 26 year-old daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness of Cambridge, met Mr Whitley, son of Sir Norman and Lady Whitley, while yachting this summer. A red carpet stretched from the church door to the edge of the farmyard.
The guests included Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and the Earl of Athlone (representing Queen Mary); the Duchess of Beaufort; Lady Helena Gibbs; Lord Fairhaven; Lady Helen Seymour; the Marquess of Hertford; Lord and Lady Delamere; Prince and Princess Galitzine; Lady Mount Temple and Baron Manchctti
Lady Mary, who was a bridesmaid to Princess Elizabeth, will wear a full-skirted gown of white and silver brocade and a Juliet cap and a veil of white tulle. On her wedding dress she will wear a bow diamond and pearl brooch, it was the wedding gift of her great aunt and godmother, Queen Mary.
The Lady Mary Ilona Margaret Cambridge was born on September 24, 1924 at 19, Lowndes Square, Kensington, to the George Cambridge, the Earl of Eltham, later the 2nd Marquess of Cambridge, and his Countess, born Dorothy Isabel Westenra Hastings, a granddaughter of Francis Power Plantagenet Hastings, 14th Earl of Huntingdon.
She was a great-great-great-granddaughter of King George III, a great-granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster and a niece of the Duchess of Beaufort. Her father was a nephew of the Earl of Athlone and of Queen Mary, the consort to King George V, making her a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II.
On November 9, 1951 at Kirtling, Newmarket, Lady Mary married Peter Whitley of Leighland House, Roadwater, Watchet, Somerset, a son of Sir Norman Henry Pownall Whitley KCB, MC and Florence May, née Erskine. Whitley senior was a British Army officer, Judge and Silver Medalist in Lacrosse at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Because the bridegroom’s parents were divorced, neither Queen Mary nor any of the major Royals attended the service, the Athlones being sent to represent them.
At the time, their marriage was not universally approved of within the Royal family; Queen Mary for instance had wanted her to marry King Michael of Romania. However, Lady Mary, reverted to type, proving that she was as strong minded like the rest of her female Cambridge relatives, and had ideas of her own when it came to selecting a groom. In spite of doubts expressed by some people, her marriage proved to be a perfect union, and shortly after she died, a cousin remarked, “I am so glad that the disapproving were proved wrong.”
After marriage, the couple was given Lord Cambridge's London townhouse in St. James's Square. Peter pursued a career with Distillers Company and became a managing director before his retirement in 1985. The couple had two children: Sarah Elizabeth Whitley born November 30, 1954 and Charles Francis Peter Whitley, born September 10, 1961.
Until her death, Lady Mary regularly attended major Royal occasions, but like her father she did not carry out Royal duties and as time went on, her appearances became less frequent though she never gave up Royal Ascot, where she was seen in the Royal Box on all four days.
Her last major role was on November 20, 1947, as a bridesmaid at the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, although she did participate in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a collateral member of the Royal family.
Sadly, this last full blooded representative of the House of Teck passed away too young on December 13, 1999, at the age of seventy-five.
Sources:The Times (London, England, Coventry Evening Telegraph Liverpool Mercury, Belfast News;
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