A ballerina named Mary

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In the mid-1950s, Lord Carnegie, heir to an earldom and a dukedom, wrote to his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, requesting permission to marry a ballerina, Mary Drage. The romance between Lord Carnegie, a great-grandson of Edward VII, and the dancer, was largely unnoticed by the British media,  which was more interested in  Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend.

Lord Carnegie, who was born in 1929, was the only child of the late Princess Maud of Fife and the Earl of Southesk. Thus, he was the heir apparent to his father's earldom. He was also the heir presumptive to the Dukedom of Fife through his mother's older sister, Princess Arthur of Connaught, who was Duchess of Fife in her own right. The Duchess' only child, Alistair, Earl of Macduff, had died in Canada in 1943, unmarried and without legitimate issue.

In 1889, Princess Louise of Wales, the eldest daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales, married Alexander Duff, the 6th Earl of Fife. Queen Victoria created the title Duke of Fife for her granddaughter's husband with the traditional heir's male succession. However, by 1900, it became apparent that Louise and Duff, who were the parents of two daughters, were not going to have more children. Queen Victoria issued a new letters patent, recreating the Dukedom of Fife to allow for the succession of the couple's two daughters and their male descendants. Thus, in 1912, when the Duke of Fife died, he was succeeded by his elder daughter, Princess Alexandra. (In 1905, Edward VII created Louise's daughters as Princesses with the rank of highness.)

Although Princess Alexandra was once briefly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, an arrangement that did not please her father, she married her mother's first cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught at St. George's Chapel in 1913.

The couple's only child, HH Prince Alistair was born a year later.

In 1917, George V issued a Letters Patent that limited the title of HRH and Prince or Princess of the Children of the Sovereign, the grandchildren in the male line, and the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. Three-year-old Prince Alistair lost his royal title and assumed the style of the eldest son of a duke, and was known as the Earl of Macduff.

In 1923, the very shy Princess Maud married the Earl of Southesk, a wealthy Scottish landowner. Her cousin, George V, who had not agreed with his father's decision to upgrade the Fife girls, suggested to Maud that she not use her title after marriage. Maud, who was never comfortable in public life, agreed, and after marriage, she was known as Lady Carnegie, and after her husband became earl, she was styled as the Countess of Southesk. There was never an official declaration of the renouncement, and Maud remained a princess for her entire life.
 
Maud preferred the private life, but due to her position in the line of succession, she served several times as a Counsellor of State during the early 1940s. She died on December 14, 1945.

The Duke of Fife, who was educated at Gordonstoun and the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, served with the Scots Guards for two years, completing his assignment in 1950. As the heir to an earldom and a dukedom - and with the land to match, Lord Carnegie was seen as a major catch during the 1950s. His main residence was a 20,000-acre estate that included Kinnaird castle. He was linked with several ladies, including Princess Margaret, but it was a ballerina, Mary Drage, who had caught his eye, and who had won his heart.

Ethel Mary Drage was born in 1933 in Basingstoke, the eldest daughter of Enid and Charles Hardinge Drage, a Lt. Colonel in the Royal Navy. (Charles Drage and the former Enid Lomer were married on July 20, 1928, at St. Margaret's Westminster. Charles died in 1983, and his funeral was held at St. Mary's Abbot Church in Kensington. Although Mary's father was a member of the Church of England, his wife may have been Roman Catholic, which would explain why Mary was Roman Catholic.)

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In 1955, Lord Carnegie was mentioned several times in the Court Circular. On January 19th, the Court Circular published the following: "Lord Carnegie will be abroad from the middle of January until the middle of May. No letters will be forward." One can only guess the reason for the long departure from Britain. Was this trip in response to the Queen's decision to not approve Lord Carnegie's marriage?   Probably yes, although no public statement was made, and the official documents will probably remain private for some years.

In May, the young Lord underwent "a serious operation," but was not well enough to leave the nursing home until nearly the end of June.

In June 1956, the London Gazette published the Queen's consent to a "contract of matrimony" between Lord Carnegie and the Hon. Caroline Dewar, the eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Forteviot.

The couple was married on September 11, 1956, at St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth. The Royal guests included the Queen Mother, the Princess Royal, and the Duchess of Gloucester.

But what became of Mary Drage. In the 1950s, Mary was a member of the Sadler's Wells and Royal Ballet companies and danced in a variety of roles in London and abroad.

On April 2, 1958, Mary was one of five godparents for Rudolf Amadeus Josef Karl Ludwig Emmanuel, the infant son of Prince and Princess Rupert zu Löwenstein-Wertheim. Prince Rupert is best known, perhaps, as Mick Jagger's financial adviser.) Mary maintained her Scottish noble connections, when she married Roderick Fraser on April 9, 1956The wedding took place at London's Church of our Lady of the Assumption. Roderick, who lived in Leconfield, Southern Rhodesia, was the third son of the Hon. Alaistair Fraser and his wife, Lady Sybil.

Rory Fraser died in 1964. The couple had three children.

In July 1969, Mary married Edward Eyre, the son of Edward Eyre and the Hon. Dorothy Lyon-Dahlberg-Acton. Mary and Edward have four children.
Mary Drage retired from the ballet at the time of her first marriage.

The Duke of Fife's marriage ended in divorce in 1966.  He never remarried, although he was linked to several women.


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