Endless compassion for Emerald Isle
Alexandra Hamilton OBE Duchess of Abercorn BORN FEBRUARY 27, 1946 – DIED DECEMBER 10, 2018, AGED 72
THE aristocrat and charity founder had never been to Ireland before she met her husband but it was to play a pivotal part in her life and she in that of the island.
Born Alexandra Anastasia Phillips in Arizona and known as Sacha, she was a descendant of both Grand Duke Michael of Russia and the legendary novelist and playwright Alexander Pushkin.
Her mother, Lady Georgina Kennard, was a member of the British aristocracy and once called “the best-connected woman in the country” thanks to her close friendship with the Queen and her prestigious ancestry.
Sacha married James, then the Marquis of Hamilton, at Westminster Abbey in October 1966, with the Queen and Prince Philip among the guests and a six-year-old Prince Andrew as a pageboy.
The couple spent their married life at Baronscourt in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with James serving as an Ulster Unionist MP until he lost his seat in 1970, when he turned his attention to the regeneration of Belfast.
They had their eldest son, Jamie, in 1969, their daughter Sophie in 1973, and youngest child, Nicholas, in 1979, the same year that James succeeded his father as Duke of Abercorn.
Known for her glamour and work ethic, Sacha trained in psychology and worked tirelessly with various charities. In 1987, inspired by her experience of living through The Troubles and seeing a need for young people to express their feelings, she established an all-Ireland creative arts programme for children. It was named the Pushkin Trust, in honour of her Russian ancestor.
After the Omagh bombing in 1998 she became a director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation and in 2006 received The Princess Grace Humanitarian Award from Prince Albert on behalf of The Ireland Fund of Monaco.
The Duchess died in London following an illness. She is survived by her husband and their three children and three grandchildren.