Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland

She was the second daughter of Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara (later the 7th Duke of Richmond), and his second wife, Isabel Sophie Craven, herself the second daughter of William George Craven (a grandson of William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven) and Lady Mary Yorke (second daughter of Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke). From her father's first marriage to Amy Mary Ricardo, she had three half-brothers and two half-sisters,{{cite book |title=Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes |date=1904 |page=1064 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpkfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1064 |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en}} including Charles Gordon-Lennox, 8th Duke of Richmond,{{cite news |date=8 May 1935 |title=DUKE OF RICHMOND DEAD AT AGE OF 64; Title, Inherited From Son of Charles II, One of Three of Rank Held by Him. |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/05/08/archives/duke-of-richmond-dead-at-age-of-64-title-inherited-from-son-of.html|access-date=12 January 2023}} Lady Evelyn Gordon-Lennox (wife of Sir John Cotterell, 4th Baronet), Lady Violet Gordon-Lennox (wife of Henry Brassey, 1st Baron Brassey, of Apethorpe), Lord Esmé Charles Gordon-Lennox,{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Susan |title=Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2019 |date=20 April 2020 |publisher=eBook Partnership |isbn=978-1-9997670-5-1 |page=4129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99tHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA4129 |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en}} and Lord Bernard Charles Gordon-Lennox.{{cite book |last1=marquis de Ruvigny et Raineval |first1=Melville Henry Massue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1224 |title=The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who," of the Sovereigns, Princes, and Nobles of Europe |date=1914 |publisher=Burke's Peerage |isbn=978-0-85011-028-9 |page=1224 |language=en |access-date=12 January 2023}}

She was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, from 1937 to 1964 and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1938.[http://royalfanzine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/whos-who-behind-palace-walls-ladies-in.html Profile of Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland]

She was married on 18 October 1911 to Earl Percy, who succeeded his father as 8th Duke of Northumberland in 1918, whereupon she became known as the Duchess of Northumberland. The couple had six children:

• Henry George Alan Percy, 9th Duke of Northumberland (1912–1940), who was killed in action on 21 May 1940.
• Hugh Algernon Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (1914–1988).
• Lady Elizabeth Ivy Percy (1916–2008), who married Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, in 1937.
• Lady Diana Evelyn Percy (1917–1978), who married John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland, in 1939 in Westminster Abbey.
• Lord Richard Charles Percy (1921–1989), who married Sarah Jane Elizabeth Norton, daughter of Petre Norton, in 1966. After her death, he married Hon. Clayre Campbell, daughter of Alastair Campbell, 4th Baron Stratheden and Campbell, in 1979.
• Lord Geoffrey William Percy (1925–1984), who married Mary Elizabeth Lea, daughter of Ralph Lea, in 1955.

The Duchess died in 1965 at Lesbury House, Alnwick.

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Category:1886 births

Category:1965 deaths

Helen

Category:Dames Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order

Category:Daughters of British dukes

Helen

Category:Mistresses of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Place of death missing

Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey