The Honourable Frances Shand Kydd
Shand Kydd in 2002
Born	Frances Ruth Roche (1936-01-20)20 January 1936 Sandringham,Norfolk, England
Died	3 June 2004(2004-06-03) (aged 68) Seil,Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Buried	Pennyfuir Cemetery,Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Spouses	John Spencer, Viscount Althorp ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1969)​ Peter Shand Kydd ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1990)​
Issue	Lady Sarah McCorquodale Lady Jane Fellowes John Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
Father	Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy
Mother	Ruth Sylvia Gill

Frances Ruth Shand Kydd (previouslySpencer, néeRoche; 20 January 1936 – 3 June 2004) was the mother ofDiana, Princess of Wales. She was the maternal grandmother ofWilliam, Prince of Wales andPrince Harry, Duke of Sussex, respectively first and fifth in theline of succession to the British throne. Born intoBritish aristocracy, she was the daughter ofMaurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, andRuth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, a confidante ofQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Following her divorce fromViscount Althorp in 1969, andDiana's death in 1997, Shand Kydd devoted her later years to Catholic charity work after converting to Catholicism.

Frances Ruth Roche was born on 20 January 1936 atPark House, located on the royal estate atSandringham in Norfolk.^[1][2] Her birth was on the same day as the death ofKing George V. Her father wasMaurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend ofKing George VI and the elder son of the American heiressFrances Ellen Work and her first husband, the3rd Baron Fermoy.^[2] Her mother,Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, a daughter ofColonelWilliam Smith Gill, was a confidante and lady-in-waiting toQueen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother).^[3] Since birth, she held the style ofThe Honourable as the daughter of abaron. She was educated atDownham School inEssex.^[4]

On 1 June 1954, she marriedJohn Spencer, Viscount Althorp (later the 8thEarl Spencer), atWestminster Abbey.^[2]Queen Elizabeth II and other members of theroyal family attended the ceremony.^[5] Aged 18, she became the youngest woman to marry at Westminster Abbey since 1893.^[5]

They had five children:

• Lady Sarah McCorquodale (born 19 March 1955), who married Neil EdmundMcCorquodale, a second cousin once removed of her stepmother,Raine, Countess Spencer.
• Lady Jane Fellowes (born 11 February 1957), who marriedRobert Fellowes, Baron Fellowes, thenPrivate Secretary to the Sovereign.
• The Honourable John Spencer (12 January 1960 – 12 January 1960), died within ten hours of his birth atPark House, Sandringham.
• Diana, Princess of Wales (1 July 1961 –31 August 1997), first wife ofCharles III.
• Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (born 20 May 1964), who married firstlyVictoria Lockwood, secondlyCaroline Freud (née Hutton and former wife ofMatthew Freud), and thirdly,Karen Villeneuve until 2024.

According to leading gossip columnist and authorPenny Junor "Johnny could be violent, and [Frances] felt she and her children would be safer out of the home."^[6] Their daughter Diana also recalled "seeing my father slap my mother across the face and I was hiding behind the door and she was crying."^[6]

Her marriage to Viscount Althorp was not a happy one and, in 1967, she left him to be withPeter Shand Kydd, an heir to a wallpaper fortune in Australia, whom she had met the year before. His half-brother was the former champion amateur jockey William Shand Kydd (1937–2014), who was the brother-in-law ofJohn Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan.^[2] Frances lived with her two youngest children, Diana and Charles, in London during the separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Viscount Althorp refused to let his children return to London with their mother.^[7] He was granted custody of their children by the courts after his former mother-in-law, Lady Fermoy, testified against her own daughter Frances.^[8]

Frances and Peter Shand Kydd were married on 2 May 1969 and lived on the Scottish island ofSeil, where they bought an 18th-century farmhouse called Ardencaple,^[9] 10 kilometres fromOban. She divided her time between London, Seil and another sheep farm inYass, New South Wales. On 14 July 1976, John Spencer, now the 8th Earl Spencer, marriedRaine, Countess of Dartmouth, daughter of the novelistDame Barbara Cartland.^[10] Although Frances lived a quiet life, she was thrust into public view following the engagement of her daughter Diana toPrince Charles (later Charles III) on 24 February 1981.^[11] Frances and her second husband Peter separated in June 1988.^[3] In 1993 Peter Shand Kydd married Marie-Pierre Palmer (née Bécret),^[12][13] a French woman who ran a champagne-importing business in London.^[14][15]

In 1996, she was banned from driving after being convicted of drunk driving,^[16] but denied she had a problem with alcohol.^[17] She and Diana quarrelled in May 1997, after Frances toldHello! magazine it was "absolutely wonderful" that Diana had lost her title of "Her Royal Highness" following her divorce from Charles. They were reportedly not on speaking terms at the time of Diana's death.^[18]

She spent her later years in solitude on Seil.^[19] She became aCatholic and devoted herself to Catholic charities.^[2] She eventually became involved with The Hosanna House and Children's Pilgrimage Trust, the Royal National Mission for Deep Sea Fishermen, the Mallaig and Northwest Fishermen's Association, and the National Search and Rescue Dogs Association.^[3]

In October 2002, when Frances left her Scottish home to give testimony at the trial of Diana's former butler,Paul Burrell, burglars targeted her house and stole her jewellery.^[20]

Frances died at her home in Scotland on 3 June 2004, aged 68, following a long illness that includedParkinson's disease andbrain cancer.^[21][22] Her funeral was held atSt Columba's Cathedral inOban on 10 June, attended by her children, sister and grandchildren, including PrincesWilliam (who gave a reading) andHarry.^[23][24] Their father, her former son-in-law, Charles, did not attend, as he was travelling to Washington to represent the Royal Family at thestate funeral of the former US President Ronald Reagan the following day. Frances was buried inPennyfuir Cemetery in Oban, Argyll and Bute.^[25]

In 2001,Maxine Riddington published a biographical book about her, entitledFrances: The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother.^[26]

• Althorp House
• Visit Scotland, Isle of Seil page

• 1936 births
• 2004 deaths
• British courtesy viscountesses
• Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
• Daughters of barons
• Deaths from brain cancer in Scotland
• Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United Kingdom
• English people of American descent
• English people of Irish descent
• English people of Scottish descent
• English Roman Catholics
• Neurological disease deaths in Scotland
• Nobility from Argyll and Bute
• People from Sandringham, Norfolk
• Roche family
• Seil
• Spencer family

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