Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland

Early life

The Duchess was born in Edinburgh in 1958. She is one of four children of the stockbroker John Richard (1933–2003), as well as sororal grandniece of Max Woosnam. Her mother, Angela, Lady Buchan-Hepburn (née Scott), is the owner of Kailzie Gardens, an income-generating family garden located in the Scottish Borders. Her parents got divorced in the early 1970s and both remarried; her stepmother Christine was a Conservative group leader on the City of Edinburgh Council, while her stepfather was Sir Ninian Buchan-Hepburn, 6th Baronet (1922–1992). As a child, she helped her mother maintain Kailzie Gardens and aspired to become a champion figure-skater, practising for the Scottish Junior Championships at Murrayfield Ice Rink. She quit when she was 13 and was enrolled at Cobham Hall in Kent.

Marriage

At the age of 16, she met the 17-year-old Lord Ralph Percy at his cousin's birthday party, and later followed him to the University of Oxford, where she took a secretarial course. They married on 21 July 1979 at Traquair Parish Church, despite being deemed too young by their parents. The pair have four children:

The couple lived in a farmhouse in Northumberland until 1995, when Lady Ralph Percy's brother-in-law Henry, 11th Duke of Northumberland, died from heart failure after an overdose of amphetamines. Her husband succeeded to the dukedom; she is the first Duchess of Northumberland not to come from the titled aristocracy. As old family friends, the Duke and Duchess attended the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton.

Entrepreneurship

The Duchess was unhappy in her ducal role until her husband suggested that she should renovate The Alnwick Garden, a large ornamental garden at the family seat, Alnwick Castle. She started the work on the garden in 2000, and turned it into one of North East England's biggest visitor attractions, as well as one of the country's most controversial ones. In 2003, the garden became a charitable trust separate from her husband's estate, with the Duchess as a fundraiser and one of six trustees.

A practising martial arts enthusiast, she introduced cage boxing to The Alnwick Gardens and a range of cocktails named after her. The Duchess, who claims to defy tradition, has received praise and scorn for The Alnwick Gardens, but has dismissed criticism as "the snobbery element of gardening". The locals welcomed the restoration and the influx of tourists, while English Heritage accused the Duchess of destroying one of the greatest gardens in England. In 2004, she was hospitalised after collapsing under pressure, and the criticism made her consider resigning the trusteeship and giving up on the project.

In 2012, the Duchess announced her plan to finish reconstruction of The Alnwick Garden by May 2015. She has made arrangements enabling her then to step down from managing it and for the visitor attraction to be franchised out to an external management company. She has also arranged for a series of books and titles to be brought out based on the Alnwick Castle archive covering aspects of the life and history of the Percy family estate.

Lord-lieutenancy

On 12 May 2009, having been recommended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, She was named Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland by Queen Elizabeth II, a position previously held by her father-in-law, Hugh, the 10th Duke, and eleven other members of the Percy family. Notably, the Duchess is the first woman to be granted this honor. As of 2011, she served as patron to 160 charities.

Publications

Alnwick Castle, The Home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland" (2012) by James McDonald, Foreword by The Duchess of Northumberland, ISBN 978-0-7112-3237-2