Kathleen, Duchess of Rutland – The Duchess was niece of prime minister

Kathleen, Duchess of Rutland (1894- 1989)

KATHLEEN was the wife of the 9th Duke of Rutland and mother of the 10th Duke.  Born Kathleen Tennant, in London, she was the third and youngest daughter of Francis John Tennant of Innes, Morayshire and Lympne Castle, Kent, and the grand-daughter of the Scottish industrialist and Baronet, Sir Charles Tennant, whose family was ennobled with the Barony of Glenconner.

She set out from 10 Downing Street in January 1916, for St Margaret’s, Westminster, to marry John Henry Montague Manners, Marquis of Granby.  At that time, her uncle by marriage, Herbert Asquith, was in his last year as Liberal Prime Minister – she herself was a niece of the formidable Margot Asquith.

Frank Tennant, her father had been one of “The Souls” an intellectual group at the turn of the century which prided itself on unconventional behaviour.

This boisterous and uninhibited ancestry sometimes caused the Duchess to rebel, but mildly, against the extreme formality of life at Belvoir Castle where the Duke would insist on a white tie even for a small family dinner.

Although she had a splendid sense of fun “Kakoo” Rutland as she was once known, also had a highly developed sense of social proprieties.

She did not take to Wallis Simpson and was most upset, indeed, profoundly shocked when Edward VIII’s abdication forced the Duke and Duchess of York, who were close friends, on to the throne.

She herself was one of the four duchesses chosen to hold the canopy over Queen Elizabeth at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.

It was unfortunate that her husband, the 9th Duke, died in 1940 at the early age of 53.

She then moved to Belvoir Lodge, where she was well served by her two servants Emily Stenton and Sidney Parkes. From the Lodge she continued her work as a Justice of the Peace and took a great interest in her large family, by whom she was much loved.

The Dowager Duchess of Rutland, who died at the age of 95 at her home in Belgravia, was one of the last survivors of the world of splendour and formality of the pre-war aristocracy.