Mary Drage was the girl most likely to marry Lord Carnegie, the future 3rd Duke of Fife; however, the marriage never took place due to her Catholic faith.
In March 1954, the British and American press published an INS report about one of Princess Margaret’s suitors heading to the altar. Lord Carnegie, 24, was briefly considered a suitor for Princess Margaret, as they shared the same social circles. They had been friends since childhood, and Margaret called him “Jimmy.”
Lord Carnegie (James George Alexander Bannerman Carnegie) was the only son of Charles, 11th Earl of Southesk, and Princess Maud, a granddaughter of Edward VII. In 1954, he was the heir to his maternal aunt, Princess Arthur of Connaught’s ducal title, Duchess of Fife.
James and Margaret were second cousins.
On March 12, 1954, it was apparent that Margaret and James were “poles apart temperamentally.” That evening, Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother sat in the Royal Box at Covent Garden during a gala performance of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Lord Carnegie was also in the audience, but he sat alone and declined to attend the post-show party at the Savoy Hotel. He was spotted waiting at the stage door for Mary Drage and drove her home.
Lord Carnegie was in love and determined to marry the pretty ballerina. An obstacle to the marriage would soon emerge. Mary was baptized as an Anglican, but when she attended a convent school in Canada, she converted to the Roman Catholic faith.
This made things difficult for Lord Carnegie. He would lose his right of succession to the throne if he married a Roman Catholic, and permission from his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, was required by the Royal Marriages Act.
Only weeks before Princess Margaret announced she would end her relationship with Peter Townsend, a divorced man, Mary Drage denied rumors of an engagement with Lord Carnegie. It is understood that the Queen would not give her permission for the marriage.
Mary Drage told the press: “I would rather see my children as Catholics than dukes or earls. Jamie could not agree that we should be married in a Catholic church, or that any children we might have should be brought up in my faith.
“Catholicism is the most important thing in my life. It is everything I believe in. All my happiness stems from it.”
She added, “Jamie and I are still friends. We have been for years.”
Lord Carnegie had insisted on a Protestant wedding, but the woman he loved would disagree. Her faith was more important to her than marrying a future Duke. There would be no compromise.
At the time of her statement to reporters, Mary was about to leave on a U.S. tour with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company.
She continued to dance until her marriage to Roderick Fraser in April 1958. They were married in Brompton Oratory, one of London’s principal Roman Catholic Churches.
On September 11, 1956, Lord Carnegie married the Hon. Caroline Dewar, daughter of the 3rd Baron Forteviot. He succeeded his maternal aunt, Princess Arthur of Connaught, as the 3rd Duke of Fife on February 16, 1959.
The Duke and Duchess of Fife had two children, David, 4th Duke of Fife, and Lady Alexandra Carnegie, before divorcing in 1966. Two years earlier, Mary’s husband died, leaving her with four young children. In 1969, she married for a second time, to Edward Eyre, who survives her.
The Duke of Fife died on June 22, 2015.
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2015/06/duke-of-fife-dead-at-85.html
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballerina-named-mary.html
