Lady Alexandra Margaret Elizabeth Douglas-Home (née Spencer, 4 July 1906 – 26 May 1996) was an English musician, writer, and arts promoter. She founded the

Burnham Market Burnham Market is an English village and civil parish near the north coast of Norfolk. It is one of the Burnhams, a group of three adjacent villages that were merged: Burnham Sutton, Burnham Ulph and Burnham Westgate. In 2022, Burnham Market ...

Festival and served as its director for almost two decades.

Early years

Born into the aristocratic

Spencer family The Spencer family is an aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. From the 16th century, its members have held numerous titles including the dukedom of Marlborough, the earldoms of Sunderland and Spencer, and the Churchill barony. Two prom ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1906, she was the sixth and youngest child of

Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer, (30 October 1857 – 26 September 1922), styled The Honourable Charles Spencer until 1905 and known as Viscount Althorp between 1905 and 1910, was a British courtier and Liberal politician from the Spen ...

, and Hon. Margaret Baring (1868–1906), daughter of the first Lord Revelstoke, a banker. Her godmother was

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

. Her youth was spent at

Althorp Althorp (popularly pronounced ) is a Grade I listed stately home and estate in the civil parish of Althorp, in West Northamptonshire, England of about . By road it is about northwest of the county town of Northampton and about northwest of c ...

and at

Spencer House Spencer House may refer to: * Spencer House, Westminster, Greater London, England United States

* Spencer House (Hartford, Connecticut), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Hartford County * Spencer House in Columbus, ...

. Lady Margaret was mainly educated at home under a governess, but spent some time at Northampton Secondary School for Girls, attending events such as concerts at the

Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no governm ...

. She shared the musical interests of her mother and grandmother, who were both violinists, and became herself an accomplished pianist. After her father's death in 1922, Lady Margaret went to Paris to study French and music. She then accompanied

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline; 25 February 1883 – 3 January 1981) was a member of the British royal family. She is the List of longest-living members of the British royal family, longest-lived British ...

to South Africa as a

lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

, before resuming her music studies in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. She also studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London, where she later became a trustee.

Career

Lady Margaret worked in the publications department of the National Gallery in 1941 and as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Alexandra in the 1950s. In the post-war years, she ran the Home and Van Thal publishing firm, together with Herbert van Thal and Gwylim Fielden Hughes, until was taken over by Arthur Barker about 1952.English Novelists Series
owu.edu. Retrieved 18 March 2021. Lady Margaret also bought and ran an antiques business in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. This led her in 1974 to found Burnham Market Festival, which began as a series of concerts, poetry readings and drama productions. She continued as its director until 1992. Her autobiography, ''A Spencer Childhood'', appeared in 1994.

Personal life

In 1931, Lady Margaret married Hon. Henry Montagu Douglas-Home (1907–1980), second son of the

Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home Charles Cospatrick Archibald Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home, (29 December 1873 – 11 July 1951), styled Lord Dunglass between 1881 and 1918, was a British peer and banker. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1930 to 1951. H ...

and a brother of

Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...

, who served as

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

in 1963–1964. The marriage was dissolved in 1947. They had two sons, Robin (died 1968) and Charles (died 1985). Their daughter Fiona married first Gregory Martin and secondly the merchant banker Sir Ian James Fraser (1923–2003), former chairman of

Lazard Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's lar ...

. Lady Margaret was a great-aunt of

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, and a close friend of

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

. She died at

Wells-next-the-Sea Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England. The civil parish has an area of and in 2001 had a population of 2,451,Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household c ...

, Norfolk, in 1996.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas-Home, Margaret 1906 births 1996 deaths Publishers (people) from London Writers from London English women pianists Festival directors Daughters of British earls

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

Alumni of the Royal College of Music 20th-century British women writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British pianists 20th-century English musicians People from Burnham Market 20th-century English women musicians Festival founders Women founders 20th-century English businesspeople 20th-century women pianists