Georgina Kennard


Georgina, Lady Kennard was a member of the British aristocracy who has been described as "one of the best connected women in the country" and "a distant cousin of the Queen and one of her closest friends". Lady Kennard was the mother of Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, and Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster. She was also an aunt of Maralyn Ramsay, Countess of Dalhousie, the sister of Myra Alice Wernher, Lady Butter, and a first cousin once removed of George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven. She was the godmother to the Queen's second son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who attended her funeral in person.

Life

Lady Kennard was born Georgina Wernher in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 17 October 1919 to Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Bt., and Countess Anastasia de Torby. She was a maternal granddaughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, and also claimed direct descent from the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin and the Afro-Russian military officer Abram Petrovich Hannibal. The family's country home was Luton Hoo. Gina "came out" as a debutante in the 1937 "coronation" season, aged only 17 but already having completed her education with studies in domestic science.
On 10 October 1944, Gina Wernher married Lt.-Col. Harold Phillips. They had five children:
Lady Kennard's first husband, Harold Phillips, died in 1980. She was remarried in 1992 to Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard, 3rd Bt..
Lady Kennard died at her home in London on 28 April 2011 aged 91 years old.

Ancestry