Biography

One of "The Mitford Girls", she is sister of: Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), Pamela Mitford (1907-1994), Tom Mitford (1909-1945), Lady Diana Mosley (widow of Sir Oswald Mosley) (1910-2003), Unity Mitford (friend of Adolf Hitler) (1914-1948) and Deborah Cavendish (Duchess of Devonshire) (1920-2014).

Her first husband, Esmond Romilly, was declared missing in action on 9th November 1941, after his plane disappeared on the way back from a bombing mission over Nazi Germany.

Lived most of her adult life in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1944.

Had four children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood. During her first marriage, to Esmond Romilly, she gave birth to a daughter named Julia Decca Romilly in December 1937, however, Julia died just five months later after contracting measles. On 9th February 1941, around two years after moving to the United States with Romilly, she gave birth to a second daughter, naming her Constancia Romilly. Following the death of Romilly, she remarried and gave birth to a son named Nicholas in 1944 and another son, Benjamin, in 1947. Nicholas was killed in 1955 when he was hit by a bus.

Because of her left-wing views, she was entirely cut out of her father's will. She later described her parents as "two of Nature's fascists", although she insisted that she loved them and had cordial relations with them.