Queen loses another confidante weeks before 70th anniversary
AS THE Queen prepares to mark her 70th wedding anniversary later this month, she has suffered the loss of yet another of her confidantes.
Her first cousin, Davina, Countess of Stair, has died at 87. ‘The Queen will be very sad,’ a courtier tells me. ‘They go back a very long way.’
Davina was the only daughter of the Queen Mother’s younger brother, Sir David Bowes-Lyon, and was a regular guest at royal gatherings.
Last month, I disclosed that the Queen and Prince Philip would mark their platinum wedding anniversary with a dinner party for close family and friends. It will be the only celebration of the milestone occasion on November 20, which no members of the Royal Family have ever previously reached.
There will be no public festivities, in contrast to their silver, golden and diamond anniversaries, which were marked with national services of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey.
A close friend of Her Majesty explained at the time: ‘They don’t want to be reminded of the many missing faces.’ Sadly, Lady Stair will now be another of those missing.
Over the past year, the Queen has
lost two life-long friends, elizabeth Longman and her cousin margaret Rhodes, as well as Prince Philip’s cousin Countess mountbatten. The Duke has also lost Brian mcGrath, his former private secretary, and one of his closest female friends, the royal librarian anne Griffiths.
When Davina married the earl of Stair, head of the Dalrymple family, in 1960, the Queen mother and Princess margaret were among the St James’s Piccadilly congregation.
Davina, who lived at Lochinch Castle in Stranraer, was devoted to her aunt, the Queen mother, remarking after her death in 2002: ‘She had a great way with people.’
a keen rider to hounds, Lady Stair was, for many years, master of the Wigtownshire Hunt, and was devoted to the Castle Kennedy Gardens on her late husband’s Scottish estate.