Lady Ursula d'Abo

In 1937 Lady Ursula served as one of six maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth during her and King George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey.[20][21] Lady Ursula, along with the other maids of honour, was dressed in a white gown designed by Norman Hartnell, the royal dressmaker to the Queen. She was photographed alongside the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the ceremony and received international media attention when observers noted her attractiveness and distinctive widow's peak.[22][23][24] Later that year she was photographed by Cecil Beaton.

On 19 July 1938 Lady Ursula accompanied the King and the Queen on their first official visit to Paris.[25] She was nicknamed "the cygnet" by Sir Winston Churchill.[26]

Once the United Kingdom entered into World War II, the Manners family arranged to lend Belvoir Castle and Haddon Hall as repositories for historic national documents from the Public Record Office.[27] Lady Ursula's father died from septicaemia on 22 April 1940.[27] Her brother Charles then became the 10th Duke of Rutland.

During World War II, Manners joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment in London, working alongside the Red Cross. Her first post was at the Ashton Hotel in Paddington where she cleaned railway carriages.[28] In 1940 Lady Ursula was working as a nurse at Battersea General Hospital and had to evacuate patients after a bombing.[29] She was later posted to St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner where she was responsible for giving atropine injections to the wounded before they underwent operations.[28] While working at St George's Hospital she resided at her mother's residence in Audley Square, Mayfair until it was heavily damaged in an air raid. Lady Ursula survived unscathed and was brought to the Dorchester Hotel by a policeman to stay with her aunt and uncle, Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich and Lady Diana Cooper.[30]

Faced with being transferred to a country hospital after more bombings in London, she chose to resign and return home to Belvoir. Peregrine Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow arranged for her to meet Denis Kendall, the managing director of the British Manufacture and Research Company's munitions factory, who offered her a job.[31] She accepted a position at the factory in Grantham, where she oversaw 2,000 women employed to make bullets for the war effort.[32][33][34]

On 25 July 1943, Manners married barrister Anthony Marreco in the chapel at Belvoir Castle.[35] Her husband left to serve in the British Armed Forces in Asia and lost communication with her until 1946. During this time she entered a brief relationship with the Maharaja of Jaipur, Man Singh II, whom she met through her friend Jawaharlal Nehru.[36][37] Lady Ursula and Marreco divorced in 1948.[38]

In October 1947 she attended the wedding of Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba and Luis Martínez de Irujo y Artázcoz at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See in Seville, Spain.[39]

Upon returning to England she was courted by financier Erland d'Abo and by John Scott, Earl of Dalkeith. During this time she was in a serious car accident with d'Abo and had to undergo facial reconstructive surgery under Arthur Rainsford Mowlem.[40] On 22 November 1951 she married Erland d'Abo at the St. Andrew's Church in West Wratting, Cambridgeshire.[41] They moved into West Wratting Park, a Georgian manor home, and also purchased a mansion in Kensington Square.[42] They had three children. Their first child, John Henry Erland d'Abo, was born on 7 October 1953. Their second child, Louisa Jane d'Abo, was born on 8 January 1955. Their third child, Richard Winston Mark d'Abo, was born on 3 July 1956.[43] Her husband died from a heart attack in 1970.[44] By that time, Lady Ursula had been in a long-time affair with oil tycoon J. Paul Getty,[45][46][47] whom she lived with for five years at Sutton Place.[44][48] She was aware that Getty had affairs with other European aristocratic women at this time.[49] When Getty died in 1976, he left her an inheritance, reportedly £85,000 and $165,250 in stock.[50][51][52][53]

Lady Ursula d'Abo died at her home, West Wratting Park, in the presence of her family on 2 November 2017, six days before her 101st birthday.[50]