Frances Ruth (Roche) Shand Kydd (1936 - 2004)

Born 20 Jan 1936 in Park House, Sandringham, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of Edward John Spencer LVO — married 1 Jun 1954 (to 1969) in Westminster Abbey, London, England

Descendants

Died 3 Jun 2004 at age 68 in Seil, Slate Islands, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Douglas Masterson [send private message], Lindsey Bowling [send private message], and Chet Spencer [send private message]

Biography

Hon. Frances Roche was a member of the aristocracy in England.

The Honourable Frances Shand Kydd was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Early life

She was born Frances Ruth Roche in Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, on 20 January 1936.^[1] Her father was Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend of King George VI and the elder son of the American heiress Frances Ellen Work and her first husband, the 3rd Baron Fermoy. Her mother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). Since birth, she held the style of The Honourable as the daughter of a baron.

Marriage and issue

On 1 June 1954, she married John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8th Earl Spencer), at Westminster Abbey.^[2] Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family attended the wedding ceremony. She was 18 years old and became the youngest woman wed in Westminster Abbey in the last five decades.

They had five children:

1. Lady Sarah McCorquodale (born 19 March 1955), who married Neil Edmund McCorquodale, a 2nd cousin once removed of Raine, Countess Spencer.
2. Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (born 11 February 1957), who married Baron Fellowes.
3. The Honourable John Spencer, who died within 10 hours after his birth on 12 January 1960.
4. Diana, Princess of Wales (1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales.
5. Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (born 20 May 1964), who married Victoria Lockwood, then Caroline Freud (née Hutton and former wife of Matthew Freud). Charles is now married to his third wife, Karen Spencer, Countess Spencer.

Divorce and remarriage

Her marriage to Viscount Althorp was not a happy one and, in 1967, she left him to be with Peter Shand Kydd, an heir to a wallpaper fortune in Australia whom she had met the year before. His half-brother was the former champion amateur jockey William Shand Kydd (1937–2014), who was the brother-in-law of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan. Subsequently, she was named "the other woman" in Janet Shand Kydd's divorce action against her husband. Viscount Althorp eventually won a bitter custody battle over his children.

Frances and Peter Shand Kydd were married on 2 May 1969^[3] and lived on the Scottish island of Seil, where they bought an 18th-century farmhouse called Ardencaple, just 10 kilometres from Oban. She divided her time between London, Seil and another sheep farm in Yass, New South Wales. Although she lived a quiet life, she was forced into public view following the engagement of her daughter Diana to Prince Charles on 24 February 1981.

Later years

On 14 July 1976, the 8th Earl Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, daughter of the novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. Shand Kydd and her second husband separated in June 1988, after he left her for a younger woman. She blamed the pressure of media attention for the breakdown of the marriage.

In 1996, she was banned from driving after being convicted of drink-driving but denied she had a problem with alcohol. She and Diana quarreled in May 1997, after she told Hello! magazine that Diana was happy to lose her style of "Royal Highness" following her controversial divorce from Prince Charles. She was reportedly not on speaking terms with her daughter by the time of Diana's death.

She spent her later years in solitude on Seil. She became a Roman Catholic and devoted herself to Catholic charities. She eventually became involved with the Handicapped Children's Trust, the Royal National Mission for Deep Sea Fishermen, the Mallaig and Northwest Fishermen's Association, and the National Search and Rescue Dogs Association.

In October 2002, when Shand Kydd left her Scottish home to give testimony at the trial of Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, burglars targeted her house and stole her jewellery.

Death and burial

Shand Kydd died in at her home in Scotland at the age of 68 on 3 June 2004,^[4] following a long illness that included Parkinson's disease and brain cancer. Her funeral at the Roman Catholic cathedral in Oban on 10 June was attended by many of her children and grandchildren, including Princes William (who gave a reading) and Harry. Their father, her former son-in-law, Charles, Prince of Wales, did not attend because he was on the way to another funeral—going to Washington to lead the British delegation at the state funeral of the former US President Ronald Reagan the following day. Shand Kydd was buried in the local graveyard on the outskirts of Oban in Argyll.

Titles and styles

• 20 January 1936 – 1 June 1954: The Honourable Frances Roche
• 1 June 1954 – 15 April 1969: Viscountess Althorp
• 15 April 1969 – 2 May 1969: Frances, Viscountess Althorp
• 2 May 1969 – 3 Jun 2004: The Honourable Frances Shand Kydd

Publications

In 2004, Maxine Riddington published a biographical book about her, entitled Frances: The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother.

Sources

1. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (1 October 2014), Frances R Roche, 1936; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Freebridge Lynn, Norfolk, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.

   Name Frances R Roche

   Event Type Birth Registration

   Registration Quarter Jan-Feb-Mar

   Registration Year 1936

   Registration District Freebridge Lynn

   County Norfolk

   Event Place Freebridge Lynn, Norfolk, England

   Mother's Maiden Name Gill

   Volume 4B

   Page 344

   Affiliate Line Number 9

2. ↑ "Marriage, Free BMD" - Apr-May-Jun 1954

   Surname	First Name	Spouse	District	Vol	Page
   Althorp	(Viscount)	Roche	Westminster	5c	585
   Roche	Frances R B	Spencer	Westminster	5c	585
   Spencer	Edward J	Roche	Westminster	5c	585

3. ↑ "Marriage, Free BMD" - Apr-May-Jun 1969

   Surname	First Name	Spouse	District	Vol	Page
   Kydd	Peter S	Spencer	Westminster	5e	1811
   Spencer	Frances R	Kydd	Westminster	5e	1811

4. ↑ "Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2017" ($) [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. GreyPower Deceased Data. compiled by :::Wilmington Millennium, West Yorkshire.

   Name: Ms Frances Ruth Shand Kydd

   Gender: Female

   Age: 68

   Birth Date: 1936

   Death Date: 3 Jun 2004

   Last Residence: Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

   Postal Code District: PA34

See also:

• "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch ( : 15 March 2018), Frances Roche, 1948; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• Wikipedia:Frances Shand Kydd

• Wikidata: Item Q256893, en:Wikipedia
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10074.htm#c100740.1

• Roberts, Gary B., and William A. Reitwiesner. "American ancestors and cousins of the Princess of Wales: the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Virginia forebears, near relatives, and notable distant kinsmen, through her American great-grandmother, of Lady Diana Frances Spencer, now Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales." Baltimore: Genealog. Publ. Co., 1984. Print.

• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 May 2019), memorial page for Frances Ruth Burke Roche Shand Kydd (20 Jan 1936–3 Jun 2004), Find A Grave: Memorial #8875847, citing Pennyfuir Cemetery, Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 30 April 2019, 17:31), entry for Frances Shand Kydd(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LVKW-PHK); contributed by various users.