Marquess of Milford Haven weds Mrs. Simpson

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February 4, 1950



The Marquess of Milford, a first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh was married today in Washington, D.C., to Mrs. Romaine Dahlgren Pierce Simpson. The ceremony, according to the New York Times account, "resulted from a widely publicized romance between a pretty American and Britain's 'most eligible bachelor.'" The ceremony began at 4 p.m., at the National Presbyterian Church.

The church is the bride's home church. Her great-grandfather was "memorialized in a stained-glass window of the church."

"Rich fur and feathers, corsages and silk hats unmistakeably separated the 700 invited guests" from those gathering in the small park "fronting the church." The guests included Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the doyenne of Washington, D.C., society, Archduke Franz Joseph of Austria and Princess Marina Torlonia.

The American flag and the Union Jack "shared honors on the altar of the green-and-white decorated church. The great bouquets were of "white Easter lilies, buddleia. snap dragons and stock," filled the church and were in baskets on "each sixth pew."

It was a single ring ceremony, and the bride did not promise to obey. The Marquess's response of "I Will" was said a loud, and the "bride's responses were low. Romaine was given in marriage by her uncle, Houghton P. Metcalf of Middleburg, Virginia.

The bride "wore a gown of dove gray-pink silk, covering over with French lace of matching shade, in afternoon length, with rolled up sleeves and Peter Pan collar." She an off-the=face Renaissance hat, "made of hand-pleated miniature fans of the same lace as the gown." Her bouquet was of white orchids and heather.

The new Marchioness was attended by Mrs. William S. Harkness and Mrs. Elizabeth Griffith of New York. The bride's mother, Mrs. Clark McIlwaine, wore a "gown of beige crepe, threaded with dull gold, and a hat of black satin appliqueed with black velvet flowers." The best man was Albert Hardman, who served in the Royal Navy with Lord Milford Haven during the war. The ushers were Col Anthony J Drexel Biddle of Washington; the Earl of Jellicoe, Second Secretary of the British Embassy; Count Georges Lasocki and Benjamin Thoron of Washington; Harry Brooks, William Woodward Jr, and Joseph H. Moran 2d of New York, and J. Averell Clark Jr, of Westbury, Long Island.
The "chief crowd divertissement before the wedding" was Lord Milford Haven's arrival; "just a breath ahead of the the bride." "I'm late," he exclaimed before he "plunged through the crowd into the door of the Presbytery," rather than the church proper, and thus avoiding most of the press photographers.
The reception, where the theme was all-white flowers, was held at the bride's mother's apartment in Washington, D.C.