Viola Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
Viola Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster was the wife of Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster.
Born Viola Maud Lyttelton, she was the daughter of Sir John Cavendish Lyttelton, 9th Viscount Cobham, and Violet Yolande Leonard.
She married Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, son of Captain Hugh William Grosvenor and Lady Mabel Florence Mary Crichton, on 3 December 1946. The family had a home at Ely Lodge, just west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.
As the Hon. Viola Maud Lyttelton she gained the rank of Flying Officer in the service of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, during the Second World War, where she was mentioned in dispatches.
Her marriage to the Duke of Westminster produced three children:
From 1979 until her death in 1987 she was Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh. She famously ordered workmen to drill holes in the ceiling of Florence Court, the stately home in County Fermanagh, to drain water away during a serious fire which almost destroyed it in 1955.
The Duchess died in a car accident near Dungannon, County Tyrone, on 3 May 1987, aged 74.
