Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe
In 2014, academic and former University Challenge presenter Bamber Gascoigne was shocked to discover that he had inherited the Surrey home of his recently departed aunt Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe. He was now master of the Grade I-listed, 40-roomed West Horsley Place, and its 350-acre estate. There was another shock in store: around
£10 million was required for emergency work on the dilapidated house alone. The solution was to establish a trust – now named the West Horsley Place Trust – and to gift West Horsley Place to it. The Trust is now forging ahead to achieve its three aims – to restore the property, to create a centre for the teaching of crafts, and to encourage the performing arts.
Mary, goddaughter of Queen Mary and friend of Queen Elizabeth, had married the Duke of Roxburghe at Westminster Abbey in 1935, but the union came to a bitter end in 1953. The duke attempted to evict her from their home, Floors Castle, ordering his butler to serve her divorce papers on her silver breakfast salver.
Mary’s response was to barricade herself in the castle, whereupon the duke sacked all the servants, bar her lady’s maid. The duke tried to drive her out by turning off the electricity, but the two ladies used paraffin lamps instead. He cut off the gas and then the water supply, so the maid collected water in buckets from the village! Thankfully their neighbour Lord Home intervened and Mary’s fortitude was rewarded with a generous alimony.
Mary inherited West Horsley Place in 1967 and spent her summers there for the next 47 years, alternating with her London winter residence.