Background
Lady Fermoy was born at her father"s house, Dalhebity, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, the daughter of Colonel William Smith Gill and his wife Ruth (née Littlejohn).
Lady Fermoy was born at her father"s house, Dalhebity, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, the daughter of Colonel William Smith Gill and his wife Ruth (née Littlejohn).
She showed early promise as a pianist and studied under Alfred Cortot at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1920s.
She founded the King"s Lynn Festival in 1951 and remained closely involved with the Festival for 25 years, persuading Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to become its patron. In 1956, the Queen Mother appointed Lady Fermoy an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber. The Queen Mother, being a widow herself, showed a preference for appointing widows to her household, and four years later Lady Fermoy was promoted to Woman of the Bedchamber, a post she held for the next 33 years.
Lady Fermoy was a firm believer in the sanctity of marriage.
However, when asked about it, Lady Fermoy remarked: "You can say that if you like – but it simply wouldn"t be true". Lady Fermoy died at her home at 36 Eaton Square, London, on 6 July 1993, aged 84.
lieutenant was reported that she was not on speaking terms with Diana when she died. Lady Fermoy"s great-grandmother, Kitty Forbes, was the daughter of Scotsman Theodore Forbes and Indian-Armenian Eliza Kewark.