Lady Just one day before the late monarch's royal funeral on September 19, Mary Russell, who served as one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honor on her coronation day, passed away. She was 88.
The wife and mother of five passed away on September 18 at home with her family, according to an obituary in The Times. According to the obituary, she and her husband David had twelve grandchildren in addition to three sons, Anthony, Philip, and Jason, two daughters, Arabella, and Mariana.
More than 2,000 family members, guests, and heads of state attended Queen Elizabeth's royal burial the next day at Westminster Abbey to pay their respects to Britain's longest-reigning queen.
The youngest of the six maids of honor present during Queen Elizabeth's coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953 was Lady Russell, who was barely 19 years old. The six ladies carried the Queen's six-yard train past Westminster Abbey while wearing embroidered silver dresses, long silk gloves, and tiaras. The Earl of Haddington, the father of Lady Russell, was a Scottish childhood friend of the Queen Mother.
On this particular day, Queen Elizabeth wore a white duchess satin dress created by Sir Norman Hartnell, the same designer who had created the dresses for her maids of honor and her wedding in 1947. The unique details, which were the result of Queen Elizabeth's request, included stitched flowers to symbolize the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations. The gown gained so much weight from their additions that its weight is estimated to be over 11 pounds.Lady Russell recalled the gown's enormous weight as well, as if it had been a hindrance that day.
Lady Russell described the coronation as "overwhelming and touching, especially during the anointing." Although it was a wonderful occasion, all I could focus on was how heavy the embroidery was.Lady Russell did not take for granted the honor of being chosen as a maid of honor. We six girls were selected to carry the Queen's train out of all the girls our age in the nation, and it meant a lot, she said.
After playing such a significant role in the coronation, Lady Anne Glenconner, one of her fellow maids of honor, told the BBC that the six women were "the Spice Girls of their day."
In 2020, Lady Moyra Campbell, the first of the six maids of honor, passed away at the age of 90. Lady Russell is the second to pass away. The living ladies are Lady Glenconner, Lady Jane Lacey, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and Lady Rosemary Muir.Her father's untimely passing occurred a full year before the grand coronation event. In 1952, King George VI passed away unexpectedly at home after being diagnosed with lung cancer and having one lung removed. Later, it was discovered that coronary thrombosis caused his death.
Though his daughter seized the kingdom more promptly, preparations for her coronation began right away after his tragic death.
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In the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, the adored mother and father of Queen Elizabeth were also laid to rest earlier this month. The Queen apparently preferred to be buried next to her family rather than get a statue or memorial in her honor.
There are also graves for her sister Princess Margaret and her husband Prince Philip.
Robert Hardman, historian and author of Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, told PEOPLE that Elizabeth "had no wish to see a statue of herself or even to have a separate burial chamber within St. George's Chapel." "She wanted to make her father proud," her cousin Margaret Rhodes once told me.
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