Beatrix Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans


Beatrix Frances Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans, Marchioness of Waterford, GBE, DGStJ, born Lady Beatrix Frances Petty-FitzMaurice, was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, both by birth and through her two marriages.

Life

Beatrix was a daughter of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne and his wife Maud. She was named after her maternal aunt, Beatrix Frances Lambton, Countess of Durham, Lady Lansdowne's favourite sister.
On 16 October 1897, she married Henry Beresford, 6th Marquess of Waterford. Their wedding was a high society affair, noted in contemporary magazines.
The couple had six children:
The Marquess died in 1911, and on 19 August 1918, Beatrix remarried, her second husband being Osborne Beauclerk, 12th Duke of St Albans, familiarly known as "Obby", and they set up home at the family's property at Newtown Anner in Northern Ireland. Through this marriage, she became Lady Osborne Beauclerk, but was better known as Beatrix Beauclerk. She became the Duchess of St. Albans when her husband succeeded to the ducal title in 1934.
She was appointed to the Orders of the British Empire and the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem These honours were given in recognition of her work as a hospital administrator during the First World War. She died of heart disease; her husband's reaction to her death was greater than friends of the couple had anticipated.