Princess Anne of Denmark


Princess Anne of Denmark was a first cousin of Elizabeth II and the mother of royal photographer Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield and Lady Elizabeth Anson. She became a Princess of Denmark through her second marriage.

Family

Anne Bowes-Lyon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1917. Her father was the Hon. John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and her mother was the Hon. Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, daughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton. Anne had three younger sisters, two of whom were Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who were institutionalized from 1941 for severe mental retardation.
Anne's paternal grandfather was Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, father of her aunt Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Marriages

Anne married Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Arnold Anson on 28 April 1938. As her husband held the courtesy title of Viscount Anson, Anne was styled Viscountess Anson upon their marriage. They were divorced in 1948. They had two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren:
On 16 September 1950, at Glamis Castle she subsequently married Prince George Valdemar of Denmark, upon which she became Princess Anne of Denmark.
Anne died in 1980, aged 62, in London, of a heart attack.

Ancestry