Maud Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne

Her Excellency The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Lansdowne VA CI GBE CH GCStJ
Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Alexandra
In office 1905–1910
Viceregal-Consort of India
In office 10 December 1888 – 11 October 1894
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	The Countess of Dufferin
Succeeded by	The Countess of Elgin
Personal details
Born	Lady Maud Evelyn Hamilton (1850-12-17)17 December 1850 St George Hanover Square, London, England
Died	21 October 1932(1932-10-21) (aged 81) St George Hanover Square, London, England
Spouse	Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne ​ ​ (m. 1869; died 1927)​
Children	Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne Lord Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice Beatrix Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans
Parents	James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn (father) Lady Louisa Russell (mother)

Maud Evelyn Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne, VA, CI, GBE, CH, GCStJ (née Hamilton; 17 December 1850 – 21 October 1932), was a British aristocrat and courtier. She was the wife of Henry Charles Keith Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Governor General of Canada from 1883 to 1888. She was then Vicereine of India from 1888 to 1894 while her husband was Viceroy.

Marriage

Lady Lansdowne was a daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, and Lady Louisa Jane Russell.^[1] On 8 November 1869, she married Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, at Westminster Abbey and they had four children:^[1]

• Lady Evelyn Emily Mary Fitzmaurice (27 August 1870 – 2 April 1960)
• Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry (14 January 1872 – 5 March 1936)
• Lord Charles George Francis Fitzmaurice (12 February 1874 – 30 October 1914)
• Lady Beatrix Frances Fitzmaurice (25 March 1877 – 5 August 1953)

Later years

From 1905 to 1909 she was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Alexandra; she was Extra Lady from 1910 to 1925. During the First World War she set up the Officers' Families Fund and served as its president, and she and her husband lent their house, Lansdowne House in Berkeley Square, London, to serve as its headquarters. She had previously done the same in the Second Boer War.^[2] She also set up an auxiliary Red Cross hospital in the Orangery at Bowood House on their Wiltshire estate.^[3]

For this and other charitable services, she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours. ^[4]

Death

She died in 1932, aged 81, and was buried (as her husband had been, five years earlier) at Derry Hill church, at the gates of their Bowood estate.^[5]

Ancestry

References

• Obituary, The Times, 22 October 1932.