Angela Delevingne
Angela Delevingne | |
|---|---|
 Delevingne in 1931 | |
| Born | Angela Margo Hamar Greenwood 8 July 1912 South Kensington, London, England |
| Died | 30 December 2014 (aged 102) |
| Education | Queen's Gate School St. Monica's, Walton Heath Slade School of Fine Art |
| Occupation | socialite |
| Spouse | Edward Dudley Delevingne |
| Children | 4, including Charles Delevingne |
| Parent(s) | Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood Margery Spencer |
| Relatives | Poppy Delevingne (granddaughter) Cara Delevingne (granddaughter) Doris Browne, Viscountess Castlerosse (sister-in-law) |
Angela Margo Hamar Delevingne (née Greenwood; 8 July 1912 – 30 December 2014) was an English socialite. She was the daughter of Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood. She and her husband Edward Dudley Delevingne were frequent guests of Hollywood stars including Clark Gable, Paulette Goddard, and Charlie Chaplin. She was a centenarian.
Early life and family
[edit]Delevingne was born Angela Margo Hamar Greenwood on 8 July 1912 in London to Hamar Greenwood,[1] a Canadian-born British politician, and Margery Spencer,[2] Chairwoman of the Women's Section of the Comrades of the Great War,[3] who was the daughter of The Rev. Walter Spencer of Fownhope Court, Herefordshire.[4] Delevingne had two brothers, David Henry Hamar Greenwood, 2nd Viscount Greenwood, and Michael George Hamar Greenwood, 3rd Viscount Greenwood, and a younger sister, Deborah Hamar Greenwood.
At the time of her birth, her father was a Member of Parliament representing York.[5] On 8 February 1915, her father was created a baronet, of Onslow Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom by George V. In 1922 her mother, then styled as Lady Greenwood, was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1929 her father was elevated to the peerage as Baron Greenwood, of Llanbister in the County of Radnor.[3] In 1937, her father was created Viscount Greenwood.[3]
Early Life
[edit]She was educated at Queen's Gate School and St. Monica's, Walton Heath.[3] When she was fifteen years old she was sent to a finishing school in Florence, Italy.[3] Upon her return to England, she enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art to study painting.[3] Her mother later pulled her out of the school.[3] When she was seventeen years old, she got a job at Foyles as an act of independence.[3] The Evening Standard reported on her employment with the headline "Peer's Daughter Works For A Living".[3]
As a child, Delevingne had to be carried down the stairs by a butler in her family's South Kensington home to take shelter during a Zeppelin raid in the First World War.[3] When Delevingne was seven years old she was almost kidnapped from Harrods, but a police officer knocked her assailant to the floor.[3] Whilst her father was Chief Secretary of Ireland from 1920 to 1922, she and her siblings were given police protection from the Irish Republican Army.[3]
Debut, marriage, and adult life
[edit]She was presented at court as a debutante in 1930,[3] after which she was courted by Francis Yeats-Brown, the author of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and the son of British diplomat Montague Yeats-Brown.[3]
During Cowes Week in 1935, she was introduced to Edward Dudley Delevingne, a stockbroker and friend of The Prince of Wales,[3] and who sent a note over to her whilst she was dining with her parents at the Gloucester Hotel on the Isle of Wight.[3] Delevingne was from a family of 'lowly origins and place' according to the biographer of his sister Doris Delevingne.[6] In 1937, against the wishes of her mother, Angela married Delevingne, who had previously been married to Countess Felicia Gizycki, a daughter of Cissy Patterson.[3][7][8] The marriage strained Delevingne's relationship with her mother.[3]
In 1938 Delevingne was introduced to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark while vacationing in Venice.[9][10] Delevingne's aunt, Lady Mount Temple, was the stepmother of Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who was Prince Philip's aunt.[11][12] After meeting Prince Philip, who the following year would be introduced to his future wife, Princess Elizabeth, Delevingne reportedly said "he’d make someone a very good husband one day."[13][14]
As a married woman, Delevingne made visits to Hollywood and befriended Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, and Clarke Gable.[3] David O. Selznick offered her a role in Gone With the Wind, which she declined due to being pregnant.[3] She and her husband made frequent trips to Venice to stay with her sister-in-law Doris Browne, Viscountess Castlerosse.[3]
The Delevingnes had two children before the outbreak of World War II, Anne Venetia Charlotte Delevingne and Edward Hamar Delevingne.[3] During the war, her husband served in the Royal Fusiliers in North Africa.[3] After the war ended the couple had two more children, Charles Delevingne and Elizabeth Caroline Felicia Delevingne.[3][15] They lived in London, Surrey, and Wiltshire.[3] Through her son Charles, she was the grandmother of models Poppy Delevingne and Cara Delevingne.[1][16]
Her husband helped to organise the purchase of Thatched House Lodge for Princess Alexandra of Kent and The Honourable Sir Angus Ogilvy, and Sutton Place for J. Paul Getty.[3]
She was centenarian and credited her long life to whiskey and crossword puzzles.[3] She died on 30 December 2014.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Hon. Angela Margo Hamar Delevingne (née Greenwood) - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
- ^ "Margery Greenwood (née Spencer), Viscountess Greenwood - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "MP's daughter dodged kidnap bid at Harrods". Montreal Gazette. 11 March 2015 – via PressReader.com.
- ^ "Fownhope Court History | Herefordshire Past". herefordshirepast.co.uk.
- ^ a b "Angela Delevingne". www.telegraph.co.uk. 6 March 2015.
- ^ "'Doris Delevingne: The Mistress of Mayfair', by Lyndsy Spence". The History Press. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- ^ Powell, Emma (6 January 2015). "Cara Delevingne pays tribute to her 'amazing' grandmother who has". www.standard.co.uk.
- ^ Lovell, Mary S. (5 September 2017). The Riviera Set: Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781681775791 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Throwback photo shows Prince Philip, age 17, with British model's grandmother". honey.nine.com.au. 13 April 2021.
- ^ "Cara Delevingne shares photograph of her grandmother with 17-year-old Prince Philip". The Independent. 13 April 2021. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022.
- ^ "Cara and Poppy Delevingne share a pic of their grandma with a 17-year-old Prince Philip". HOLA! USA. 13 April 2021.
- ^ Slater, Georgia (13 April 2021). "See Cara and Poppy Delevingne's Grandmother with Prince Philip in Glam Throwback Photo from 1938". people.com.
- ^ "Cara Delevingne's Sister Shares Pic Of Their Grandmother And Prince Philip - WorldNewsEra". 23 August 2020.
- ^ "Cara Delevingne's Sister Shares Pic of Their Grandmother and Prince Philip". 13 April 2021.
- ^ Herrmann, Joshi (27 November 2017). "The divine Delevingnes: Cara Delevingne's society family". www.standard.co.uk.
- ^ "Cara Delevingne Looks Just Like Her Late Grandmother Who Died at 102: See the Vintage Pics". news.yahoo.com.