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Commemorating the birth of Princess Victoria Constance Mary of Teck (June 12, 1897 – June 23, 1987) who was descended from two extremely wealthy, powerful, and aristocratic families from her mother’s side the 1st Duke of Westminster (Grosvenor) and the 2nd Duke of Sutherland (Sutherland-Leveson-Gower). She was born at her paternal grandparents’ home White Lodge in Richmond Park. Her father was Prince Adolphus of Teck, who was the eldest son of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. Her mother was Margaret Evelyn Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge the sixth child and third daughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster and Lady Constance Gertrude Leveson-Gower, the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. The Duke and Duchess of Teck had been given White Lodge by Queen Victoria in 1869 and it would remain the family home for the next 30 years. As befitting such a well-connected family Princess Mary took on various aristocratic titles in the lifetime. During the First World War the British Royals dropped their foreign titles, and so her father was created Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Eltham, and Viscount Northallerton, and so Princess Mary became Lady Mary Cambridge. She married Henry Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, later the 10th Duke of Beaufort, on June 14, 1923, and so became Marchioness of Worcester and later Duchess of Beaufort when her father-in-law died in 1924. During the Second World War her aunt, Queen Mary, reluctantly decided to live with Mary and her husband at their family seat Badminton House, in Gloucestershire. The Queen’s staff occupied most of the house. After she left, Mary was asked which part of the house her aunt had lived in during her stay, to which she replied: “She lived in all of it.”
