Margaret Rhodes LVO (née Elphinstone; 9 June 1925 – 25 November 2016) was a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. From 1991 to 2002, she served as Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Early life and education

Born Margaret Elphinstone in Westminster, London, Rhodes was the youngest daughter of the 16th Lord Elphinstone and his wife Lady Mary Bowes-Lyon, a sister of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Less than a year older than the future queen, she was a frequent playmate of the young Princess Elizabeth. During the Second World War she lived at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and took a secretarial course. On 20 November 1947 she was a bridesmaid to Princess Elizabeth.

Career

During World War II she worked as a secretary for MI6. She was a Woman of the Bedchamber – a mix of lady-in-waiting and companion – to her aunt, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, from 1991 until the latter's death in 2002.[8]

That year Rhodes was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) and lived in the Garden House, a grace and favour residence in Windsor Great Park. In the run-up to the Queen's 80th birthday in April 2006, Rhodes gave an interview to the BBC in which she stated her belief that the Queen would not abdicate.

Her autobiography, The Final Curtsey, was published in 2011. She was the 'castaway' on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 3 June 2012.

On 27 November 2016, Buckingham Palace announced that Rhodes had died, aged 91, on 25 November following a short illness.

Personal life

On 31 July 1950, she married the writer Denys Gravenor Rhodes (1919–1981), with Princess Margaret as one of the bridesmaids. The couple had four children and one grandson:

• Annabel Margaret Rhodes (21 February 1952) she married Christopher J. Strickland-Skailes in 1978. They have one son. She remarried G. V. Charles Cope in 1986
  • Andrew James Downing Strickland-Skailes (1980)
• Victoria Ann Rhodes (27 September 1953), a goddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II; married Nicholas Deans in 1974
• Simon John Gravenor Rhodes (22 February 1957), a god-son of Princess Margaret; married Susan Simon in 1983
• Michael Andrew Gravenor Rhodes (8 June 1960)

Ancestry

Being a first cousin of Elizabeth II, Rhodes shares half her ancestry with the Queen, including several notable peers.