Sacha Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn

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Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the Birth of the late Duchess of Abercorn, who was born on this day in 1946! The daughter of Georgina Wernher and Lt.-Col. Harold Phillips, Alexandra Anastasia, always known as ‘Sacha’ had an illustrious lineage, descendent from the Romanov Family and from the great Russian poet; Pushkin, as well as family links to Lord Mountbatten and the Duke of Edinburgh. Her siblings included Natalia, the Dowager Duchess of Westminster, and they grew up at Checkendon Court in Oxfordshire with frequent visits to Luton Hoo, the estate of her maternal grandparents, Sir Harold and Lady Zia Wernher. In 1966, Sacha married the Marquess of Hamilton, the Heir of the 4th Duke of Abercorn, in a society wedding at Westminster Abbey, who succeeded to the Dukedom in 1979, when they moved to the magnificent Baronscourt Estate in Northern Ireland. The Duke and Duchess had three children; the Marquess of Hamilton, Lady Sophia Hamilton, and Lord Nicholas Hamilton, and three grandchildren. A Founder of the Pushkin Prizes and The Pushkin Trust, promoting art therapy for young people, the Duchess was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for her work. She was the Honorary Secretary of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation in Omagh, the patron of the Omagh Community Youth Choir, and the House Patron of Abercorn House at Cambridge House Grammar School, Ballymena, and also received the Princess Grace Humanitarian Award in 2006. The Duchess passed away in 2018, at the age of 72.

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