1. Mary Soames, Baroness Soames was an English author.
15 Facts About Mary Soames
1. 2.
Mary Soames was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames.
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Mary Soames worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941 with which she served in London, Belgium and Germany in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of Junior Commander.
4.
Mary Soames accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met Harry S Truman and Joseph Stalin.
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Mary Soames served many public organisations, such as the International Churchill Society, as a Patron; Church Army and Churchill Houses; and chaired the Royal National Theatre Board of Trustees between 1989 and 1995.
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Mary Soames was Patron of the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged.
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In 1980, Lady Mary Soames was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her public service, particularly in Rhodesia.
8.
In 1992, Mary Soames appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.
9.
Mary Soames's chosen book was Memoirs from Beyond the Grave by Chateaubriand and her luxury item was a supply of fine Havana cigars.
10.
Mary Soames chose as her favourite record a movement from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, which evoked the joy of returning to the countryside for her, a devoted countrywoman.
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Mary Soames was made a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2005, and was invested on 13 June at Windsor Castle.
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Mary Soames used the insignia worn by her father, Winston Churchill, who was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1953.
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Mary Soames offered insights into the Churchill family to various biographers, prominently including Sir Martin Gilbert, who became the authorised biographer of Sir Winston Churchill after the death of Churchill's son, Randolph, in 1968.
14.
On 31 May 2014, Lady Mary Soames died at her home in London at the age of 91 following a short illness.
15.
Mary Soames's ashes are buried next to those of her husband within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.