Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess Of Roxburghe

Mary Evelyn Hungerford Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, was born on 23 March 1915 as Lady Mary Crewe-Milnes. She was the daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, and Lady Peggy Primrose. Her maternal grandparents were Hannah de Rothschild and Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. In 1919, her mother was among the first seven women appointed as magistrates following the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.

Lady Mary Crewe-Milnes was a goddaughter of Queen Mary. On 24 October 1935, she married George Innes-Ker, who became the 9th Duke of Roxburghe. The marriage took place at Westminster Abbey. The couple divorced in 1953. During her marriage, she was noted for resisting her husband's efforts to evict her from Floors Castle, the family estate.

She was a patron of the Royal Ballet during a period when Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton were prominent figures.

In 1967, following the death of her mother Margaret, Lady Crewe, she inherited an estate at West Horsley, Surrey, including West Horsley Place, a historic country house dating from the 16th century. Upon her death, the estate was inherited by her grandnephew Bamber Gascoigne, the grandson of her half-sister Lady Annabel Hungerford Crewe-Milnes.

The Duchess of Roxburghe died on 2 July 2014 at the age of 99 after a long illness.

In her will, she bequeathed her family’s collection of more than 7,500 books, comprising significant and previously unknown works of English and French literature, to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Both her father and grandfather had studied at Trinity College. Among the notable items in the collection was a first edition of Sir Philip Sidney's *The Faerie Queene*, inscribed by King Charles I during his imprisonment.