Sad news today! Lady Annabel Goldsmith has passed away at the age of 91. The brilliant Society Hostess and daughter of the Marquess of Londonderry gave her name to the famous Annabel’s nightclub founded by her first husband, before she became the mistress and later wife of financier Sir James Goldsmith.
The daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry and Romaine Combe, Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart grew up at the family seats of Mount Stewart, Wynyard Park, and Londonderry House under the stewardship of her grandmother, the Society Hostess 7th Marchioness of Londonderry. Educated at Southover Manor School in Sussex and Cuffy’s Tutorial College in Oxford, Lady Annabel became a leading debutante in 1952, with her Coming-Out Ball attended by Queen Elizabeth II at Londonderry House.
I could never have imagined the path my life was to take. I was a gawky, painfully shy little girl and it made me noisy and attention-seeking, particularly at school, which I loathed.
My parents were wonderful; more hands-on than many of their generation, and I was close to both of them. With no television, I read voraciously at Wynyard Park, our family home in Co Durham, and I always knew I would write.
I believe life would have been very different if my mother had lived. She was very beautiful but sadly developed mouth cancer in her early 40s. She died aged 47, when I was 17.
In 1954, Lady Annabel married businessman Mark Birley, son of society painter Sir Oswald Birley, and gave her name to the famous Annabel’s nightclub he founded in 1963, which was and remains one of the leading London nightclubs. The couple had three children, Rupert, Robin and India Jane Birley, and divorced in 1975, though they remained very close until his death in 2007.
Lady Annabel began a decade long affair with financier Sir James Goldsmith, and had three further children, Jemima, Zac and Ben Goldsmith, before they got married in 1978, though Sir James primarily lived with his mistress in New York, in France and Mexico.
Lady Annabel resided in Ormeley Lodge, a 6-acre Georgian mansion on the edge of Richmond Park, with a holiday home by the seaside in Bognor Regis and a farm in the hills above Benahavísin Spain. She founded the “Democracy Movement”, a Eurosceptic political advocacy group, and published several works, among them Annabel: An Unconventional Life (2004) and No Invitation Required: The Pelham Cottage Years (2009), which were noted for their wit and warmth.
I didn’t start writing the first of my three books until I was 69, and my younger self would wish I had made more of a career of it. I’m sure my mother would see my life as more of a work of fiction than reality: after my conventional upbringing I’d have been astonished at the lack of it in my adult life.
As a society hostess, Lady Annabel was close to several members of the Royal Family, including her neighbour Princess Alexandra of Kent but particularly Princess Michael of Kent, even holding the Wedding Reception of Lord and Lady Frederik Windsor at Ormeley Lodge. She was most recently spotted at Wimbeldon and also at the Wedding of her son, Baron Goldsmith, last month.
Our condolences to Lady Annabel’s family!
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