Georgina Kennard: Difference between revisions

British noble (1919–2011)

Georgina, Lady Kennard (née Wernher; formerly Phillips; 17 October 1919 – 28 April 2011) was a British aristocrat who was considered “one of the best connected women in the country.”^[1] She was connected to many prominent families such as the royal family and the Mountbattens, Grosvenors, Hamiltons and Burnetts and the Russian imperial family.

Georgina Wernher was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 17 October 1919, the second child and elder daughter of Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Bt, and Countess Anastasia de Torby.

She was the maternal granddaughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia (grandson of Tsar Nicholas I and first cousin of Tsar Alexander III), and also descended from the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin and the Afro-Russian military officer Abram Petrovich Hannibal. The family’s country home was Luton Hoo.^[2] Gina “came out” as a debutante in the 1937 “coronation” season, aged only 17 but already having completed her education with studies in domestic science.^[3]

On 10 October 1944, Gina Wernher married Lt.-Col. Harold “Bunny” Phillips (1909–1980), a former lover of Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma. They had five children:

Lady Kennard’s first husband, Harold Phillips, died in 1980. She was remarried in 1992 to Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard, 3rd Bt. (1915–1999).

Lady Kennard died at her home in London on 28 April 2011 aged 91 years old.