Frances Shand Kydd

Frances Ruth Shand Kydd (née Roche; 20 January 1936 – 3 June 2004) was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Her biographer, Max Riddington, who was the writer of Frances: The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother, described Shand Kydd as a woman who was "certainly complicated" and also "funny, warm, intelligent, and energetic." After Diana's death on 31 August 1997, Shand Kydd devoted the final years of her life to Roman Catholic charity work.

Early life

Shand Kydd was born Frances Ruth Roche in Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, on 20 January 1936. Her father was Edmund Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend of King George VI and the elder son of the American heiress Frances Work and her first husband, the 3rd Baron Fermoy. Her mother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, DCVO, was a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). In her own right since birth she held the style of The Honourable as the daughter of a baron.

Her ancestors were Irish, Scottish, English, American, and possibly, Armenian, and Indian. Her paternal grandmother, Frances Ellen Work, was an heiress and socialite from New York City. Shand Kydd was a direct descendant of Kitty (her great-great-grandmother), daughter of Eliza and Scotsman Theodore Forbes. Eliza's father, Hakob Kevork or Kevorkian, was probably Armenian. Eliza's Indian mother may have been Muslim.