Carole Middleton | |
|---|---|
 Middleton in 2011 | |
| Born | Carole Elizabeth Goldsmith (1955-01-31)31 January 1955 (age 70) |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Education | Featherstone High School |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Family | Middleton |
Carole Elizabeth Middleton (néeGoldsmith; born 31 January 1955)[1] is an Englishbusinesswoman. She is the mother ofCatherine, Princess of Wales,Philippa Matthews, andJames Middleton.
Born inPerivale and brought up inSouthall,London, Middleton was educated atFeatherstone High School before working as a private secretary. She joinedBritish Airways and worked as aflight attendant until hermarriage toMichael Middleton, a member of theMiddleton family.
Middleton founded Party Pieces, amail-order party-supply company, in 1987.
Her first three grandchildren,Prince George,Princess Charlotte, andPrince Louis, are second, third, and fourthin line to the British throne, respectively.
The Middleton family resides atBucklebury Manor, inBerkshire.
Carole Elizabeth Goldsmith was born on 31 January 1955 inPerivale,London, the daughter of Ronald (1931–2003) and Dorothy Goldsmith (née Harrison; 1935–2006), great-granddaughter of Jane Harrison (née Liddle;c.1839–1881) whose great-great-grandfather wasaristocratSir Thomas Conyers, 9th Baronet.[2][3][4][5]
Her father was a craftsman decorator, while her mother worked as apart-timejeweller.[6] She spent her early years incouncil housing inEaling before moving to a smallVictorian apartment inSouthall,West London, attending the local High School. She is the older sister ofITrecruitment multi-millionaire businessmanGary Goldsmith.[7][8][9]
She initially left school aged 16, but soon returned and achieved fourA Levels.[10] She originally planned on being a teacher, but has stated that "my parents couldn't afford to send me to teacher training college". She subsequently worked as a shop assistant forJohn Lewis before being hired as a secretary forBritish Airways.[10] She then transferred toground crew and by her marriage in 1980 was working as aflight attendant.[10][11]
In 1987, Middleton established Party Pieces, a company that began by making party bags and which then sold party supplies and decorations bymail order. Middleton first began the business "at her kitchen table" and distributed thousands ofleaflets to advertise locally.[12] Her husband quit his job at British Airways to join her at the company in 1989.[13] In 1995, the firm's growth necessitated its headquarters be moved to a range of farm buildings atAshampstead Common.[14][15] Party Pieces was sold in May 2023 after it fell intoadministration.[16] The company owed £2.6 million tocreditors when it collapsed, including £612,685 owed toHM Revenue and Customs, £218,749 owed toRoyal Bank of Scotland for aCoronavirus Business Interruption Loan, and £20,430 to anAfghan refugee whosesmall business was a supplier ofhelium gas.[17][18][19] The company's administrator's report stated thatunsecured creditors were unlikely to be paid.[20]
Goldsmith married colleague,flight dispatcherMichael Middleton on 21 June 1980 at the Church of St James inDorney, Buckinghamshire.[21] Her husband descended from a prominentYorkshire family with aristocratic roots; his grandmotherOlive Middleton was aV.A.D. nurse alongside her second cousinFlorence, Baroness Airedale.[22][23][10] The couple subsequently bought a Victorian house inBradfield Southend nearReading, Berkshire.[21] The Middletons had three children:Catherine (b. 9 January 1982),Philippa (b. 6 September 1983) andJames (b. 15 April 1987.)[21] The family moved toJordan in 1984 before returning to West Berkshire,Bradfield Southend, in 1986.[24] In 1995, the Middletons purchased Oak Acre, aTudor-style manor house inBucklebury, Berkshire.[25] In 2002, Middleton and her husband bought "with cash" a flat inChelsea, London, in which their children lived after completing their university studies.[26] The flat was sold for £1.88 million in 2019.[27]
In 2011, her daughter, Catherine,marriedPrince William atWestminster Abbey.[28] Thegoldchevron on thecoat of arms commissioned by her husband that year is in reference to Middleton's maiden name ofGoldsmith.[29] She has seven grandchildrenPrince George,Princess Charlotte andPrince Louis of Wales, Arthur Michael, Grace Elizabeth Jane and Rose Matthews, as well as James' son Inigo.[30] In 2012, the family boughtBucklebury Manor, in Bucklebury, West Berkshire – aGrade II listedGeorgian manor house set on over 18 acres.[31]
The Middleton family's wealth is the result of their business combined with thetrust funds inherited fromOlive Christiana Middleton (née Lupton), who theBBC reported in 2011 as being Michael Middleton'saristocrat grandmother.[32] This wealth has resulted in the Middletons being reported to be multi-millionaires.[33][34][35]
But another branch of the Blakison family would eventually wind its way down to Sir Thomas Blakiston Conyers, himself a descendent of King Edward IV, and the great-great-grandfather of Jane Liddle, herself the great-great-grandmother of Kate's mother, Carole Middleton [and her brother Gary]...
Eventually Dorothy and Ron moved into a council flat nearby before borrowing the deposit to buy a small house of their own in Southall, where they were living when Carole was born in 1955.
Carole Elizabeth Goldsmith, b. Perivale Maternity Hospital, Perivale, Middlesex, 31 Jan. 1955 [entry no. 82], in 1980 a stewardess
In 1915, she [Olive Middleton] ticked "Miss" as her marital status and duly became a nurse, working at Gledhow Hall in Leeds, home to her second cousin Baroness Airedale and used as a VAD hospital, until 1917 before spending three months in 1918 at Roundhay Auxiliary Military Hospital
News – page 7; "(Michael Middleton's) ancestors were very much landed gentry, and as we now know some of them were titled...Baroness Airedale was the second cousin of Olive Middleton..." (Page 7) Middle-class Duchess of Cambridge's relative wore crown and attended George Vs coronation
Catherine joined the school at four years old when her family returned to West Berkshire in 1986 after spending two-and-a-half years in Jordan.
This (flat) was bought with cash for £780,000 in 2002 and is worth some £1.2 million now (in 2011). Land Registry records show there is no mortgage on it.
He (R. Noel Middleton) attended Clifton College in Bristol as a boarder before heading to Leeds University and qualifying as a solicitor. He met and married aristocrat Olive Christiana Lupton.
When Olive Middleton died in 1936, her will shows that she left a personal estate of £52,031. Olive's will also discloses that by 1936 there were three separate family trusts in operation controlling the bulk of her and her family's fortune
By 1936 there were three separate family trusts in operation controlling the bulk of her and her family's fortune
