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The Final Curtsey

A Royal Memoir by the Queen's Cousin

Margaret Rhodes
Margaret Rhodes (1925–2016) was a first cousin to the late Queen, with whom she enjoyed a close friendship, and spent her childhood in Windsor and Buckingham Palace. Here she recalls those early years before describing her wartime job with MI6 coordinating the work of secret agents in the Near East, her marriage to Denys, an Irish-born soldier and ADC to Randolph Churchill, and her devoted service as the Queen Mother’s lady-in-waiting.
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Product information:
  • Publisher: Umbria
  • Year: 2012
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208pp
  • Illustrated: Yes
  • Dimensions: 196x128mm
  • ISBN: 9781780270852
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.2kg
Product code:
545561
Product information
Full publisher description
This is the intimate and revealing autobiography of the late Margaret Rhodes, the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and the niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. In the Second World War years she 'lodged' at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. Three years later the King and Queen attended her own wedding; Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid.



In 1990 she was appointed as a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. In the early months of 2002, she spent as much time as possible with her ailing aunt, and was at her bedside when she died at Easter that year. The next morning she went to Queen Elizabeth's bedroom to pray, and in farewell dropped her a final curtsey.
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