Anne Bowes-Lyon
Anne Ferelith Fenella Bowes-Lyon, later styled Viscountess Anson and later Princess Anne of Denmark, was a British noblewoman and member of the Danish royal family by marriage, and a first cousin of Elizabeth II.
Born into the Bowes-Lyon family, she married Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson, and had two children, Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, and Lady Elizabeth Shakerley, before divorcing Anson in 1948. She became a princess of Denmark by her second marriage to Prince Georg of Denmark in 1950.
Family
Anne Bowes-Lyon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1917. Her father was the Hon. John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and her mother was the Hon. Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, daughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton. Anne's paternal grandfather was Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was a niece of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Anne had three younger sisters, two of whom were Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who were institutionalized in 1941 for severe intellectual disability. She was second born, but eldest surviving daughter. Apart from early deceased Patricia, Nerissa and Katherine, Anne also had one younger sister, Diana Cinderella Somervell.Marriages
Anne married Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Arnold Anson on 28 April 1938. As her husband held the courtesy title of Viscount Anson, Anne was styled Viscountess Anson upon their marriage. They were divorced in 1948. They had two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren:- (Thomas) Patrick John Anson, who later succeeded his grandfather as the 5th Earl of Lichfield. He married Lady Leonora Grosvenor, daughter of the Duke of Westminster, on 8 March 1975 and they were divorced circa 1986. They had three children and four grandchildren.
- Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Anson, who worked as a party planner for the Queen. She married Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet on 27 July 1972 and they were divorced in 2009. They had one daughter and two grandchildren.