Lady Ursula d'Abo | |
|---|---|
 Lady Ursula at Belvoir Castle in 1937, dressed in Norman Hartnell for the coronation | |
| Born | Ursula Isabel Manners 8 November 1916 London, England |
| Died | 2 November 2017 (aged 100) |
| Occupation | Socialite |
| Spouse(s) | Anthony Marreco (1943–1948, divorced) Erland d'Abo (1951–1970, his death) |
| Children | John Henry Erland d'Abo Louisa Jane d'Abo Richard Winston Mark d'Abo |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Manners family |
Lady Ursula Isabel d'Abo (née Manners, formerly Marreco; 8 November 1916 – 2 November 2017) was an English socialite and aristocrat who served as a maid of honour to the Queen at the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. She received international media attention after her photograph from that day, standing alongside the British royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, circulated in the news. Reporters focused on her beauty and distinctive widow's peak, and an American wrote to the editor of a newspaper, asking "who is the girl with the widow's peak?" Her title of her book, The Girl with the Widow's Peak: The Memoirs (2014), played with this question.
Winston Churchill nicknamed Lady Ursula in 1938 as "the cygnet" for her comparative youth and beauty among a travelling company that accompanied the king and queen on a royal tour in France that year.
During World War II Lady Ursula worked as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment before being appointed to a managerial position over 2,000 women employees at the British Manufacture and Research Company's munitions factory in Grantham. In her later life she received attention for her brief relationship with Maharaja Man Singh II of Jaipur and her long-term affair with American oilman J. Paul Getty.