Sibell (Lygon) Rowley (1907 - 2005)

Born 10 Oct 1907 in Upton-upon-Severn, Malvern Hills District, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 31 Oct 2005 at age 98 in Cheltenham, Cheltenham Borough, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Sibell was born in 1907. She was the daughter of William Lygon and Lettice Grosvenor.

She a member of the family that inspired Evelyn Waugh to write his celebrated Roman Catholic novel Brideshead Revisited.

Sibell worked as a receptionist at the hairdressing and beauty establishment in Bond Street run by Violet Cripps, one of the former wives of the Duke of Westminster, her maternal uncle. She became a Socialist and tried her hand at journalism, contributing stories to Harper's Bazaar.

In February 1939 she married Michael Rowley, an aircraft designer eight years her junior, at the Brompton Oratory. It turned out he was already married, having tied the knot spontaneously in Mexico, to a German girl called Eleonore. On his return to England, Rowley met and fell in love with Lady Sibell.

On hearing this story, Lady Sibell was far from amused, and in June 1939 the pair went over to Germany to see the first Mrs Rowley. The rejected wife appeared to accept her lot, although her marriage was still valid (as technically the second marriage was not).

During the war her husband served as a fighter pilot with 601 Squadron. In 1940 he developed a tumour on the brain, and Sibell took him home, doing her best to keep his life stress-free. She nursed him faithfully throughout his long illness until his death at the Radcliffe Infirmary on September 19 1952.

A month after his death, Lady Sibell took over as Master of Foxhounds at the Ledbury Hunt. She lived at Droitwich, and later at Stow-on-the-Wold.

She passed away in 2005 at the age of 98.^[1]

Burial

St Mary The Virgin Churchyard, Madresfield, Malvern Hills District, Worcestershire, England^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV4C-QDSY : 4 September 2014), Sibell Rowley, Nov 2005; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006,"
2. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80917761/sibell-rowley

• "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7BS-S3G : 15 July 2019), Sibell Lygon in household of William Earl Beauchamp, Madresfield, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

1911 Census of England
Madresfield Court, Madresfield, Worcestershire, England 93 rooms

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p2967.htm#i29669