Charles Liddell-Grainger marries

The Daily Telegraph published the following marriage announcement on the 24th October 24th 2008 Mr C.M. Liddell-Grainger and Dr M.M. de Clermont The marriage took place on Oct 20, 2008, in London between Charles Montagu Liddell-Grainger and Martha Margaretha de Clermont. The witnesses were Mr and Mrs Miles Huntington-Whiteley and Prince and Princess Dimitri Lobanov-Rostovsky. 

A luncheon was held at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught. A service of blessing will be held in December at St James's Palace. This was Charles's 2nd marriage and fourth engagement. In 1989, Charles had become engaged to Elizabeth Jane Harrison-Bright, daughter of Sir Keith Bright, former head of London Regional Transport. Charles, then 28, had proposed at Verbier, Switzerland, after a four-year romance. 

But only six months later, as the bride was making wedding plans, Charles broke off the engagement. Three months after the engagement ended, he met Karen Humphryes, a caterer, who was four years his senior. They dated for 18 months before Charles "got down on bended knee" and popped the question during a weekend in Gloucestershire. They were married at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace. 

This marriage was dissolved by divorce.

Charles Liddell-Grainger was born in 1960, the second of five children of David Liddell-Grainger and Anne Abel Smith, who was the granddaughter of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. Alice, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was married in 1904 to Prince Alexander of Teck, a younger brother of Queen Mary. In 1917, Prince Alexander relinquished his German titles and was created Earl of Athlone. Alice reverted to her own British title and was styled as HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. Alice and Alexander had three children: Lady May, Rupert, Viscount Trematon (who suffered from hemophiliac and died as the result of injuries suffered in an auto accident), and Maurice, who died an infant. 

In 1932, Lady May married Sir Henry Abel Smith, and they had three children, Richard, Anne, and Elizabeth. Anne's marriage to Scottish landowner, David Liddell-Grainger, was perhaps the wedding of the year in 1957. The couple was married at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, with guests that included the Queen, the Queen Mother, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, the duchesses of Gloucester and Kent, Princes William and Richard of Gloucester, Prince Michael and Princess Alexandra of Kent, Princess Sibylla of Sweden, Princess Andrew of Greece and Lady Patricia Ramsay. The bride's grandmother, Princess Alice, was also present. Anne was attended by three pages, three child bridesmaids and eight older bridesmaids, who included Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and her sister, Irene, and Princess Christina of Sweden. The reception was held in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. Anne and David would have five children: Ian, Charles, Simon, Alice, and Malcolm before divorcing in 1981. 

The marriage ended due to David's infidelity with the Norwegian-born Lady de la Rue, the wife of an elderly Scots baronet, Sir Eric. 

After Anne and the children moved out of the castle, Lady de la Rue moved in. So did Sir Eric, who needed medical attention. An interesting menage a trois that caused scandal for David Liddell-Grainger, who was asked to resign from the Royal Company of Archers and from the Freemasons, where he was a Scottish Grand Master. David and Christine de la Rue lived were open about their relationship. In 1983, Christine, 41, gave birth to David's son, who was named David Henry. The new parent held their son, with Sir Eric looking on. One can only imagine David's relationship affected his legitimate children and his former wife, who maintained her own relations with the British royal family. Anne became a devout Christian, and continues today as a missionary in Africa. "Not being married does not worry me," David told a reporter in the late 1980s. Marriage is just a contractual exchange of goods, a legal relationship. It is not the institution it was 20 years ago." 

n 1985, Christine gave birth to a second son, who was named Maximilian. (Max died in 1999 at the age of 14 from cancer.) Four years later, Sir Eric died and Christine became free to marry David. But they did not marry until 1996. A decade later, David developed cancer, and he told his wife that he had only weeks to live. Christine sought out specialists in Britain and abroad. David was undergoing treatment in Schwerin, when he died in March 2007. He left an estate worth £14 million. But he chose to exclude his children from his first marriage. Under ordinary circumstances, Ian should have inherited Ayton Castle, in Berwickshire, as he was the first born son. 

But David chose to leave his  6,000-acre estate to his elder son, David, by Lady de la Rue. He also failed "to bequeath a single penny" to his children by Anne Abel Smith. David's 14-page will included a statement that his elder children were "well provided for" in a trust that was set up in 1970. The castle and the two London homes were left for Christine's lifetime enjoyment. He wanted his funeral to be private, and arranged by his wife (and would not allow his former wife to attend), nor did he want a memorial service "or other public recognition of my life to be arranged or any obituary to be written." 

Ian told a Sunday Mail reporter that his father "had become bitter after being shunned by the upper classes over his unconventional lifestyle." He added that "I watched my father slowly take 25 years to die of shame. We tried to help Dad. You cannot leave your kith and kin. In the end, I do not think we could have done much more to help. He died of shame." Ian acknowledged that his father's lifestyle would affect his life. "He realised quickly he had made huge mistakes."

 Charles, who served for a time as a Tory member of the Berwick-upon-Tweed council, lived recently near his Aunt Marcia (widow of Richard Abel Smith) in Blidworth Dale. His wife, Dr. Margaretha de Clermont is a medical doctor and medical hypnotherapist. She also has a passion for horses and writes an equestrian blog. 

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Margarethe http://mdeclermont.blogspot.com/