Frances Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne


Frances Dora Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne was a British noblewoman. She was the paternal grandmother of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and thus a great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.
Her father was Oswald Smith, of Blendon Hall, Bexley, Kent and her mother was Henrietta Mildred Hodgson. Her paternal grandparents were George Smith and wife Frances Mary Mosley, daughter of Sir John Parker Mosley, 1st Baronet, and wife Elizabeth Bayley, granddaughter of Nicholas Mosley and wife Elizabeth Parker, and sister of Oswald Mosley, 2nd Baronet, great-great-grandfather of Oswald Mosley.
On 28 September 1853, she married Claude Bowes-Lyon. He became the 13th holder of the Earldom of Strathmore and Kinghorne following the death of his brother Thomas in 1865. Frances then assumed the title and style of Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Together the couple had 11 children:
The Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne died on 16 February 1904. The Countess survived him by almost eighteen years. She died at 19 Hans Place, Chelsea, London on 5 February 1922, aged 89. She was buried at Glamis Castle, Angus, the family seat of the earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne.