Friend’s death deals fresh blow to Queen
THE Queen faced fresh sadness yesterday after the death of a close friend and lady-in-waiting.
Lady Farnham, 90, had been the Queen’s lady of the bedchamber since 1987 and accompanied her to her diamond jubilee service in 2012, after the Duke of Edinburgh was hospitalised.
Her death on December 29 came just weeks after the death of another devoted friend of the Queen, her former mistress of the robes, the Duchess of Grafton.
Ann Fortune FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton, died in early December at the age of 101. The two deaths are a double blow for the 95-year-old Queen, whose husband Prince Philip died at the age of 99 last April.
‘It is very sad for the Queen,’ a royal source told the Daily Telegraph. ‘Everyone loved Lady Farnham, she was always so good humoured. She was also a very glamorous and attractive woman. She was always very generous to new people joining the household. It has not been a good year for the Queen – losing her husband and then the Duchess of Grafton and now Lady Farnham.
‘They were dear friends who supported the Queen on official duties. Unfortunately a sad consequence of living a long life is that you have to say goodbye to a lot of people you care about.’
Lady Farnham was married to Barry Maxwell, the 12th Baron Farnham – a City banker and Irish peer who died in 2001. During her 44 years of service to the Queen, she joined the monarch on many royal tours, including the historic visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011.
Born Diana Marion Gunnis, she married Lord Farnham in 1959 and the couple adopted two daughters, Harriet and Sophia, and had four grandchildren.
Lady Farnham joined the royal household in 1987 and was appointed a commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1998 in recognition of her service.
She was then elevated to a dame commander of the same order in 2010 – an award made personally by the Queen for services to the sovereign.
Lady Farnham died peacefully at home, according to a death notice placed in the Irish Times, and her ashes are due to be interred at Kilmore Cathedral in County Cavan. Her late husband was born in the county.
The Queen will continue to be assisted on official duties by a number of longserving ladies-in-waiting, including Lady Susan Hussey, 82, who travelled with her in the car to the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last April, and Dame Mary Morrison, 85, who has served as her woman of the bedchamber since 1960, the year of Prince Andrew’s birth.