Who was Margaret Rhodes?

Margaret Rhodes (née Elphinstone; 9 June 1925 – 25 November 2016)
was a British aristocrat and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
From 1991 to 2002,she served as Woman of the Bedchamber to her aunt
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Childhood

Born Margaret Elphinstone in Westminster, London, Rhodes was the
youngest daughter of the 16th Lord Elphinstone and his wife, Lady
Mary Bowes-Lyon, an elder sister of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Less than a year older than the future queen, she was a frequent playmate
of the young Princess Elizabeth. During the Second World War she lived
at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and took a secretarial course.

On 20 November 1947, she was a bridesmaid to Princess Elizabeth at her
wedding to Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh.

Duty

During World War II, she worked as a secretary for MI6. She was a
Woman of the Bedchamber – a mix of lady-in-waiting and companion –
to her aunt, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, from 1991 until the
latter's death in 2002.

In the 2000 Birthday Honours Rhodes was appointed Lieutenant of the
Royal Victorian Order (LVO). She lived in the Garden House, a grace and
favour residence in Windsor Great Park 

In the run-up to the Queen's 80th birthday in April 2006, Rhodes gave an
interview to the BBC in which she stated her belief that the Queen
would not abdicate.

Her autobiography, The Final Curtsey, was published in 2011.
She was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on
3 June 2012.

Rhodes appeared in seven documentaries about her first cousin
Queen Elizabeth II.

Love and marriage

On 31 July 1950, she married the writer Denys Gravenor Rhodes
(1919–1981), with Princess Margaret as one of the bridesmaids.

 
The couple had four children and one grandson:

* Annabel Margaret Rhodes (born 21 February 1952); she married
Christopher James Downing Strickland-Skailes in 1978. They have one son.
She remarried (Geoffrey Vallack) Charles Cope in 1986. Annabel was a
goddaughter of the Duke of Edinburgh and served as a bridesmaid at the
wedding of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon.

* Andrew James Downing Strickland-Skailes (born 1980)

* Victoria Ann Rhodes (born 27 September 1953), a goddaughter of
Queen Elizabeth II;  married Nicholas Deans in 1974

* Simon John Gravenor Rhodes (born 22 February 1957), a godson of
Princess Margaret; married Susan Simon in 1983. Susan was appointed
as an extra Lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II in July 2017.

* Michael Andrew Gravenor Rhodes (born 8 June 1960)

Death

On 27 November 2016, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Rhodes had died,
aged 91, on 25 November following a short illness.

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral in the
Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor Great Park, on 12 December 2016,
accompanied by The Duke of York, The Earl and Countess of Wessex,
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Alexandra,
The Hon. Lady Ogilvy.

Source pictures: Wikipedia + book cover