Lady Elizabeth Cavendish

Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish CVO (24 April 1926 – 15 September 2018) was a British noblewoman who was a childhood friend of Queen Elizabeth II and a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret from the late 1940s until the latter's death in 2002.

By royal permission, Lady Elizabeth spoke on the record to HM the Queen's official biographer, Ben Pimlott.

Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, and his wife, the former Lady Mary Gascoyne-Cecil.[1][2] She was born three days after Princess Elizabeth of York in 1926.

It has been suggested that Lady Elizabeth introduced her friend Princess Margaret to Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1951, and although she herself never married, she did form a close romantic relationship with the writer and future poet laureate John Betjeman that same year. Betjeman's daughter Candida Lycett Green had called her her father's "beloved other wife". Lady Elizabeth was one of the godparents of David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon.[3]

When Betjeman died in Cornwall on 19 May 1984, Lady Elizabeth was at his side.[4]

She was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 1976 and Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1997.[2] Lady Elizabeth was a Justice of the Peace in Inner London for many years where she served as a chairman of both the juvenile and adult courts.

Lady Elizabeth Cavendish died on 15 September 2018 at the age of 92.[5]