Lady Mary Ashley Cooper in Jacobean costume

Lady Mary Ashley-Cooper (1902-1936), later Lady Alington, eldest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury. Pictured in the costume she wore at the Hatfield Pageant, in which she appeared as the Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James I, afterwards Queen of Bohemia. Described as tall and sturdily built, she was, according to The Times, the best swimmer in Mayfair and won countless titles at the Bath Club. She married Lord Alington in 1928 and had one daughter born the following year. She was a familiar figure on the social scene, distinctive because of her hair, which was shoulder length (unusual for the 1930s). Tragically, on 2 August 1936, Lady Alington died while undergoing an operation for acute appendicitis

Alington Bohemia Elizabethan Hatfield Jacobean Jan19 Pageant Ruff

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