20 Facts About Frances Shand Kydd

Frances Ruth Shand Kydd was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Frances Shand Kydd was the maternal grandmother of William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, respectively first and fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.

Frances Shand Kydd was born Frances Ruth Roche at Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, on 20 January 1936.

Frances Shand Kydd's birth was on the same day as the death of George V Frances Shand Kydd's father was Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend of George VI and the elder son of the American heiress Frances Ellen Work and her first husband, the 3rd Baron Fermoy.

Frances Shand Kydd's mother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, a daughter of Colonel William Smith Gill, was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth.

Frances Shand Kydd was educated at Downham School in Essex.

Frances Shand Kydd was aged eighteen and became the youngest woman married in Westminster Abbey since 1893.

Frances Shand Kydd's half-brother was the former champion amateur jockey William Shand Kydd, who was the brother-in-law of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan.

Frances Shand Kydd lived with her two youngest children, Diana and Charles, in London during the separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Viscount Althorp refused to let his children return to London with their mother.

Frances Shand Kydd was granted custody of their children by the courts after his former mother-in-law, Lady Fermoy, testified against her own daughter Frances.

Frances and Peter Shand Kydd were married on 2 May 1969 and lived on the Scottish island of Seil, where they bought an 18th-century farmhouse called Ardencaple, 10 kilometres from Oban.

Frances Shand Kydd divided her time between London, Seil and another sheep farm in Yass, New South Wales.

In 1993 Peter Shand Kydd married Marie-Pierre Palmer, a French woman who ran a champagne-importing business in London.

Frances Shand Kydd was reportedly not on speaking terms with her daughter by the time of Diana's death.

Frances Shand Kydd spent her later years in solitude on Seil.

Frances Shand Kydd became a Catholic and devoted herself to Catholic charities.

Frances Shand Kydd eventually became involved with The Hosanna House and Children's Pilgrimage Trust, the Royal National Mission for Deep Sea Fishermen, the Mallaig and Northwest Fishermen's Association, and the National Search and Rescue Dogs Association.

In October 2002, when Frances Shand Kydd left her Scottish home to give testimony at the trial of Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, burglars targeted her house and stole her jewellery.

Frances Shand Kydd died at her home in Scotland at the age of 68 on 3 June 2004, following a long illness that included Parkinson's disease and brain cancer.

Frances Shand Kydd was buried in Pennyfuir Cemetery in Oban, Argyll and Bute.