The Lady Magazine

3 October 2014

The Lady mourns. Last week, ‘Debo’, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the youngest and last of the glamorous and often scandalous Mitford sisters, died peacefully aged 94. Hers was an incredible life. Her father, David Freeman-Mitford, was an offi ce manager of The Lady and married Sydney, daughter of the magazine’s founder, Thomas Gibson Bowles. The Mitfords had six girls, including celebrated author, Nancy; Diana, who went on to marry the British fascist Oswald Mosley, and Unity, who developed an unhealthy infatuation with Adolf Hitler. Deborah, meanwhile, was the very essence of elegance, glamour and wit. When her husband, Andrew Cavendish, became 11th Duke of Devonshire, she moved into the family’s Chatsworth House – then in fi nancial peril – and transformed it into the magnifi cent spectacle it is today. Shrewd, clever, enthusiastic, she took to her new role with unforgettable energy. She loved Elvis and her chickens and dogs, corresponded with Evelyn Waugh and Patrick Leigh Fermor, danced with John F Kennedy, and even wrote for The Lady. But she never lost her approachability, her openness, her modesty. She was beautiful, bold and authentic, as her cousin Julia Budworth remembers in the fi rst of an evocative three-part series on page 14. In many ways, her passing represents the end of an era. She will be much missed.