Ivy Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Encyclopedia
Ivy Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland DBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (16 June 1887–3 March 1982), born Ivy Gordon-Lennox, was Duchess of Portland from 1943 to 1977 and afterwards Dowager Duchess
Dowager
A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....

. She founded the Harley Foundation, "to encourage creativity".

Parents (Algernon and Blanche Gordon-Lennox)

Ivy Gordon-Lennox was born on 16 June 1887, the only child of Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 the Hon. Lord Algernon Charles Gordon-Lennox (b. 19 September 1847, London - d. 3 October 1921) and his wife Blanche Maynard NPG website
(born 14 February 1864, London - died 17 August 1945), who had married at Easton
Easton
-United Kingdom:*Easton, Bristol*Easton, Cambridgeshire*Easton, Dorset*Easton, Hampshire**Crux Easton, Hampshire*Easton, Isle of Wight*Easton, Lincolnshire*Easton, Norfolk*Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire*Easton Neston, Northamptonshire*Easton, Somerset...

 on 31 August 1886. Ivy was their only child.

Ivy Gordon-Lennox's parents parents had a country house
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

, Broughton Castle
Broughton Castle
Broughton Castle is a medieval manor house located in the village of Broughton which is about two miles south-west of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England on the B4035 road ....

, near Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...

, which was rented from the 18th Lord Saye and Sele
Geoffrey Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 18th Baron Saye and Sele
Geoffrey Cecil Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 18th Baron Saye and Sele , was a British soldier and Liberal politician...

, and a house in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 at #7 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

. Lord Algernon was the second of the four sons of the 6th Duke of Richmond
Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond
Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, and 1st Duke of Gordon KG PC , styled Lord Settrington until 1819 and Earl of March between 1819 and 1860, was a British Conservative politician.-Background and education:Born at Richmond House, London, he was the son of Charles...

 (1818 – 1903), and his obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

called him "a notable social figure, whose popularity it would be difficult to over-estimate". He served in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, the Life Guards
Life Guards (British Army)
The Life Guards is the senior regiment of the British Army and with the Blues and Royals, they make up the Household Cavalry.They originated in the four troops of Horse Guards raised by Charles II around the time of his restoration, plus two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards which were raised some...

, and the Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...

, and was twelve years aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to HRH The Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge was a member of the British Royal Family, a male-line grandson of King George III. The Duke was an army officer and served as commander-in-chief of the British Army from 1856 to 1895...

, Commander-in-chief
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces
The Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, or just the Commander-in-Chief , was the professional head of the British Army from 1660 until 1904, when the office was replaced by the Chief of the General Staff, soon to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff . From 1870, the C-in-C was subordinate to...

 of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

.

Like her mother, Lady Blanche Gordon-Lennox, who was knighted as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1919; Ivy Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland would be created a DBE, almost forty years later in 1958.

Ivy Gordon-Lennox's maternal grandfather was Colonel the Hon. Charles Maynard, a son of the 3rd Viscount Maynard
Viscount Maynard
Viscount Maynard, of Easton Lodge in the County of Essex, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for Charles Maynard, 6th Baron Maynard, Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk. He was made Baron Maynard, of Much Easton in the County of Essex, at the same time, also in the Peerage...

,
while her three Gordon-Lennox uncles included the 7th Duke of Richmond
Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond
Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond and Lennox KG, GCVO , styled Lord Settrington until 1860 and Earl of March between 1860 and 1903, was a British politician and peer....

 (1845 – 1928), Captain Lord Francis Gordon-Lennox, who died before she was born, and Lord Walter Gordon-Lennox
Lord Walter Gordon-Lennox
Lord Walter Charles Gordon-Lennox PC was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Treasurer of the Household from 1891 to 1892 under Lord Salisbury.-Background:...

 (1865 – 1922), a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 member of parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

On 1 January 1912, Ivy Gordon-Lennox was appointed a Maid of Honour to HM Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...

, the Queen Mother
Queen mother
Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...

. In 1915, during the First World War, she was Princess Victoria's representative in connection with proposed Nurses' Clubs in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, travelling to Étaples
Étaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.There is a separate commune named Staple, Nord.-History:...

 and Abbeville
Abbeville
Abbeville is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Location:Abbeville is located on the Somme River, from its modern mouth in the English Channel, and northwest of Amiens...

.

Marriage

On 12 August 1915, Ivy Gordon-Lennox married William Cavendish-Bentinck, Marquess of Titchfield
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland
William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland KG , known as Marquess of Titchfield until 1943, was a British Conservative Party politician....

 (1893 – 1977), son of the 6th Duke of Portland
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland
William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland KG, GCVO, PC, TD, DL , known as William Cavendish-Bentinck until 1879, was a British landowner, courtier and Conservative politician...

 and his wife Winifred Anna Dallas-Yorke. At the time of this marriage, three portraits of the bride were painted by Philip de László. The couple had two daughters, born in 1916 and 1918.

Life

From 1922 to 1943, Lady Titchfield was a political wife, her husband representing Newark
Newark (UK Parliament constituency)
Newark is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since 1885, it has elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 and serving as a Junior Lord of the Treasury
Lord of the Treasury
In the United Kingdom, there are at least six Lords of the Treasury who serve concurrently. Traditionally, this board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the Treasury, and four or more junior lords .Strictly they are commissioners for exercising the office of Lord...

 under Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...

 and again under Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....

. In 1943, Ivy Titchfield became Duchess of Portland when her father-in-law died and her husband inherited his father's titles.

In 1977, the Duchess set up the Harley Foundation intended "to encourage creativity in all of us". She intended it to help artists by providing affordable work-space in quiet surroundings, to support the survival of specialist craft skills in an age of mass production, and to improve public access to the visual arts. The Foundation was granted a long lease of some properties at Welbeck and it now maintains three sets of studios there, with space for up to thirty artists and craft-workers, plus a Gallery and craft shop.

The Duchess died at Welbeck Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, on 3 March 1982, aged 94.

Children

The Duke and Duchess of Portland had two daughters, Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck
Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck
Lady Alexandra Margaret Anne Cavendish-Bentinck was a member of the British nobility and one of the richest landowners in the country. Her father was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland, a British Conservative politician. The Duke was also known as "Chopper" for the wooden house he...

, born on 6 September 1916; and Lady Victoria Margaret Cavendish-Bentinck, born on 9 October 1918.

The first daughter remained unmarried throughout her life and was known as Lady Anne Bentinck. In April 2008, at the age of ninety-one, she was reported in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...

of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to be the 511th richest person in the United Kingdom, with a fortune estimated at £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

158 million, largely in art and land. She died on 21 December 2008.

The second daughter, Lady Victoria, married the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Don Gaetano Parente, Principe di Castel Viscardo, on 12 April 1950. She had one son, William Henry Marcello Parente (b. 1951), and she died on 29 August 1955, aged 36. The Portlands' only grandchild, William Parente, of Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...

, was appointed High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
’The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...

 in 2003.

Non-engagement in 1910

In September 1910, Lady Blanche Gordon-Lennox took firm action to quell a rumour that her daughter was engaged to marry Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton
Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton
Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton PC , known as Viscount Turnour until 1907, was an Irish peer and British politician in the first half of the twentieth century who achieved the rare distinction of serving as both Baby of the House and Father of the House at the opposite ends of his career in the...

. A notice to this purpose appeared in the New York Times, reading:

Winterton married the Hon. Cecilia Monica Wilson in 1924, and died childless in 1962.
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