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Dowager duchess of Devonshire, the last Mitford sister, dies aged 94 Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the last Mitford sister, dies aged 94
(35 minutes later)
Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the last of the famous Mitford sisters, has died at the age of 94, her son has said. Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the youngest and last-surviving of the celebrated Mitford sisters, has died at the age of 94, her son has said.
As wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, whom she married in 1941, Deborah Vivien Cavendish was mistress of Chatsworth House, one of the grandest estates in England. But it is perhaps because of her position as the youngest of the six Mitford sisters that “Debo”, as she was called throughout her lifetime, will best be remembered.As wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, whom she married in 1941, Deborah Vivien Cavendish was mistress of Chatsworth House, one of the grandest estates in England. But it is perhaps because of her position as the youngest of the six Mitford sisters that “Debo”, as she was called throughout her lifetime, will best be remembered.
The sisters, daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, fascinated and at times appalled society from the 1940s onwards. Nancy, the oldest sibling, was a novelist and journalist, who lightly fictionalised the siblings’ upbringing in a series of comic novels; Diana married Oswald Mosley at Josef Goebbels’ house with Hitler as a guest of honour; Unity was a devotee and close friend of Hitler’s; Jessica (“Decca”) renounced her privileged upbringing to become a lifelong communist. Only Pamela, the second-oldest daughter, lived a quiet life largely out of the public eye in the countryside. The aristocratic sisters, daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, fascinated and at times appalled society from the 1940s onwards. Nancy, the oldest sibling, was a novelist and journalist who lightly fictionalised the siblings’ upbringing in a series of comic novels; Diana married Oswald Mosley at Goebbels’ house with Hitler as a guest of honour, and was interned during the war because of her Nazi sympathies; Unity was a devotee and close friend of the Fuhrer’s who shot herself in the head (but survived) when war broke out; Jessica (“Decca”) renounced her privileged background to become a lifelong communist, eventually emigrating to the US and becoming a civil rights activist.
Though she called her memoirs, published in 2010 at the age of 90, Wait for Me! because she had always felt she was catching up with her siblings, Deborah’s own life was hardly uneventful. She took tea with Hitler, knew Churchill and John F Kennedy, and attended the Queen’s coronation. Only Pamela, the second-oldest daughter, lived a quiet life largely out of the public eye in the countryside. A brother Tom is frequently overlooked altogether.
In later years, with the estate facing potentially crippling death duties following the death of the 10th Duke, she took an active role in the running of Chatsworth and was nicknamed the “housewife duchess”, opening the house fully to the public and becoming the driving force behind its shop and cafe. Though the duchess called her memoirs, published in 2010 at the age of 90, Wait for Me! because she had always felt she was catching up with her siblings, Deborah’s own life was hardly uneventful. Born in 1920, like all her sisters she was not sent to school because her father disapproved of overeducating girls and thought that hockey would make their ankles fat.
She and her husband had six children, three of whom died at birth. Her son Peregrine is the current (12th) Duke of Devonshire. She was very close to John F Kennedy (whom she called “the Loved One”) and knew Churchill, took tea with Hitler at the age of 17, and attended the Queen’s coronation. From an early age, however, she was more interested in keeping chickens than in politics and managed to stay on good terms with all members of her ideologically polarised family, insisting that “their politics were nothing to do with me.”
She met her husband, Andrew Cavendish, as a debutante when they were both 18, and they married in 1941. He was the younger son of the 10th duke of Devonshire, but the death of his older brother during the war led to his inheriting a portfolio of estates, of which the 175-room Chatsworth House in Derbyshire was merely the largest, when his father died in 1950.
Potentially crippling death duties forced the duke to sell off properties and heirlooms and to open Chatsworth fully to the public. Deborah became actively involved in the running of the estate and was the driving force behind its shop and cafe, earning the nickname the “housewife duchess” – the duke credited her with much of their financial nous.
Deborah did not lose her taste for luxury, retaining the tradition of gold-leafing the exterior windowframes because she believed it lasted longer than painting them, but she insisted that she hated snobbery, saying “I think class is the biggest pest that has ever been invented”.
She was also, perhaps surprisingly, a devoted fan of Elvis Presley, collecting memorabilia to decorate her office at Chatsworth.
Alongside the colourful lives of her siblings, Deborah experienced personal tragedy: she and the duke had six children, of whom three died at birth. “It was in the war and people were thinking of other things,” she said of the death of her first son in 1941, “so it was skated over by everyone as a fact of life. But it was an awful blow.” There was private pain, too, over her husband’s alcoholism which she said nearly ended their marriage, though she was more relaxed about his many infidelities. “He may have been difficult at times,” she said, “but he was never boring.”
Her son Peregrine, the current (12th) Duke of Devonshire, confirmed her death in a statement.