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Lady Moyra Hamilton in 1953.
Photograph (c) National Portrait Gallery.
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Lady Moyra Kathleen Hamilton was born at London on 22 July 1930 as the first child and only daughter of James, Marquess of Hamilton (1904-1979; later 4th Duke of Abercorn), and his wife Lady Mary Crichton (1905-1990), who married in 1928. Moyra’s paternal grandparents were James, 3rd Duke of Abercorn (1869-1953), and Lady Rosalind Bingham (1869-1958). Moyra’s maternal grandparents were Henry Crichton, Viscount Crichton (1872–1914), and Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor (1883-1959).
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| HM The Queen with her six Maids of Honour for the Coronation. Photograph (c) National Portrait Gallery |
On 2 June 1953, Lady Moyra was one of six maids of honour who were chosen to assist the new British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, at her coronation. In an interview with the BBC on the occasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Lady Moyra remembered this momentous event. “I was terribly lucky to be invited to be one of the maids of honour to carry the Queen’s train. There were so many highlights. The amazing feeling in the abbey; the incredible prayerfulness throughout and the sight of all those crowds who had been waiting in appalling weather all night; some of them had been there overnight, others had been there from early the day before. The rain was teeming down and yet there was this joyful feeling and the abbey was full of people from all over the globe.” The five other maids of honour from the 1953 Coronation still survive: Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart (b.1932; former wife of Max Rayne, Baron Rayne, and later wife of Robert Lacey), Lady Anne Coke (b.1932; wife of 3rd Glenconnor), Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton (b.1932; former wife of John Bailey and later wife of David Russell), Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (b.1934), and Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill (b.1929; wife of Charles Muir).
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| Lady Moyra Campbell in the 1960s. Photograph (c) National Portrait Gallery. |
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| Commander Peter Campbell. Photograph (c) National Portrait Gallery. |
On 12 November 1966, Lady Moyra Hamilton married Commander Peter Colin Drummond Campbell (b.1927), the son of Major-General Sir Douglas Campbell. Moyra and Peter had two sons: Rory (b.1967), and Michael (b.1970). From 1954 until the late 1960s, Lady Moyra served as a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Alexandra.
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| Lady Moyra in later life. |
Lady Moyra Campbell died at Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Sunday, 8 November 2020. She was ninety years-old. Lady Moyra’s funeral will occur in the strictest family environment due to the pandemic.
Sources:
The Lady Moyra Kathleen Campbell, CVO 1930-2020
