Name Constance Lewes | Died January 21, 1970 | |
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Constance Edwina Lewis, CBE (formerly Grosvenor, née Cornwallis-West; 16 May 1875 – 21 January 1970), also known as Shelagh, was an English socialite and peeress.
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Duchess of Westminster
Constance Edwina Cornwallis-West was the youngest child of William and Mary Cornwallis-West. She was very close to her sister, Daisy, Princess of Pless. At a party at Blenheim Palace, Mary asked the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to convince Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, to marry her daughter. The pair were married on 16 February 1901 and moved into Grosvenor House on Park Lane, a mansion that the Duke had inherited from his grandfather. Later they lived together at Eaton Hall, Cheshire. The Duke was one of the richest men in the world.
They had three children:
The Duchess was one of only two women to compete in sailing at the 1908 Summer Olympics as owner and extra crewmember of the 8-metre bronze medal-winning yacht Sorais. She distributed the diplomas of special merit to the competitors of the other Olympic sports on 25 July 1908.
The marriage was happy at first and the couple shared many interests, including yachting and motor racing. However, her parents' expectation of personal financial gain through the marriage and her own long absence from home affected her marriage to the conservative Duke. In 1909, the couple's only son and heir apparent to the dukedom died following an operation for appendicitis while the Duchess was away. The Duke accused her of neglecting the child, and the Duchess did not attend the boy's funeral. It was rumoured that the Duchess was having a secret liaison with the Duke of Alba, whilst her husband had what he described as his own "nocturnal adventures". Nonetheless, the couple appeared together at social events until the birth of their youngest child, Lady Mary. In 1913, the Duke requested separation but, with the outbreak of the First World War, the couple turned their attention to war service – the Duke joined his regiment and the Duchess sponsored a military hospital in Le Touquet, housed in a local casino.
Later life
In 1918, the Duchess was invested as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her service in the war. The couple were divorced – on the grounds of the Duke's adultery and desertion – the following year, with the decree being made absolute 19 December 1919. The alimony settlement of £13,000 a year he made upon her was then the largest in British legal history.
The couple remained on friendly terms after 1919, hosting their daughters' debut balls together. Because their subsequent interactions were amicable, it has been surmised that both parties collaborated to achieve the divorce because each wanted to end the marriage and to remarry.
On 14 January 1920, aged 44, the former Duchess of Westminster secretly married her private secretary and agent, Captain John Fitzpatrick Lewis, then in his thirties, at Lyndhurst, Hampshire. She had met Lewis early in the war, while he was being treated at her hospital in Le Touquet. They had no children. The former duchess died aged 94.
Dennis Wheatley dedicated his 1961 thriller Vendetta in Spain to her.