Conservative MP Ian Liddell Grainger (Bridgewater & West Somerset) and his wife Jill became grandparents for the first time on June 9 when their youngest child, May Alexandra, gave birth to a son, Leopold. May, a makeup artist, lives in London with her 30-year-old partner, Christopher Burns.
I normally do not write about Members of Parliament, but Ian Liddell-Grainger, 61, is a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. He is the first descendant of Queen Victoria to be elected to the House of Commons.
Ian is a descendant of Victoria's eighth child, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884), and his wife Princess Helene of Waldeck und Pyrmont. Leopold, who suffered from hemophilia, was named for his great-uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians (Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Saafeld. The Duchess of Albany was pregnant with her second child, Charles Edward when Prince Leopold died after a fall in Cannes. Charles Edward was born four months after the death of his father.
The line of descent is through the Duke of Albany's daughter, Princess Alice (1883-1981), who in 1904 married HSH Prince Alexander of Teck (1874-1957), the youngest son of HRH Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a first cousin of Queen Victoria, and HH Prince Franz, Duke of Teck.
Alice and Alexander -- who in 1917 renounced his German titles and was created Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon -- had three children: Lady May (1906-1994), Rupert, Viscount Trematon (1907-1928) and Prince Maurice (who was only three months old when he died in September 1910).
Lady May Cambridge married Sir Henry Abel Smith (1900-1993) and they were the parents of three children: Anne Mary Sibylla (1932), Richard Francis (1933-2004), and Elizabeth (1936). Five-year-old Princess Elizabeth was one thirteen bridesmaids at Lady May's wedding in October 1931. Among the other bridesmaids were the bride's first cousin, Princess Sybilla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Princess Ingrid of Sweden, whose late mother, Princess Margaret of Connaught was a first cousin of Princess Alice and Lady Alice Montagu-Douglass-Scott. In 1935, Lady Alice married May's first cousin, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.
It was at Lady May's wedding where Princess Sibylla met her husband, Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden. They were introduced by Gustav Adolf's sister, Princess Ingrid.
Anne married David Liddell-Grainger (1930-2007) at St. George's Chapel in 1957. Her bridesmaids included Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands (her grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, and Princess Alice were first cousins), and Princess Christina of Sweden, the youngest daughter of Princess Sybilla.
Ian is the eldest of five children. He married Jill Nesbitt in 1985. May has two older siblings: Peter (1987) married Elizabeth Wilks in May and Sophie (1988), now the wife of James Boardman. Their marriage took place in August 2019.
Lady May was a bridesmaid to Princess Patricia of Connaught, Princess Mary, who married the future Earl of Harewood, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who married the Duke of York (George VI). Lady May, Princess Mary, and the Duke of York were first cousins. Princess Patricia and Lady May's mother were first cousins. Princess Alice and King George V were first cousins.
Victoria - Leopold - Alice -May -Anne -Ian -May -Leopold.
