Background
Helen Cynthia Crewe-Milnes was the third daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, by his first wife, the former Sibyl Graham, daughter of Sir Frederick Graham (of the Graham Baronets of Netherby) and Lady Jane Street Maur.
Helen Cynthia Crewe-Milnes was the third daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, by his first wife, the former Sibyl Graham, daughter of Sir Frederick Graham (of the Graham Baronets of Netherby) and Lady Jane Street Maur.
She had an older sister, an older brother, and a twin sister. Helen Cynthia married the Honorary George Charles Colville, younger son of the 1st Viscount Colville of Culross and the Honorary
Cecile Carrington, on 21 January 1908.
Their children were: David Richard Colville (b 11 May 1909 – d 9 February 1987) Major Philip Robert Colville (b 7 November 1910 – d 11 April 1997) Sir John Rupert Colville (b 28 January 1915 – d 1987), the diarist She raised eyebrows when she introduced a commoner, Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis, albeit a self-made man, into her own stratum of society, persuading the Queen to invite him to dinner on the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert III in the Cowes Week regatta. In 1948 Shoreditch Council renamed a housing estate on Felton Street estate as "the Colville estate" in honour of her long association.
In 1963, Lady Cynthia published her autobiography, Crowded Life. She died on 15 June 1968, aged 84, at 4 Mulberry Walk, Chelsea, London, England.