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Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale

Mary Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale, Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston, CBE (20 January 1896 – 9 February 1966), was a British peeress, socialite and philanthropist.

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Ravensdale
CBE

The 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
(as 1st Baron Ravensdale)

The 3rd Baron Ravensdale

Mary Irene Curzon

(1896-01-20)20 January 1896

9 February 1966(1966-02-09) (aged 70)

Crossbench

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Mary Leiter

Lady Cynthia Mosley (sister)
Lady Alexandra Curzon (sister)

The eldest child of George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, and Mary Leiter, she inherited her father's lesser title, the Barony of Ravensdale, on 20 March 1925, and was created a life peer as Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston, of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, on 6 October 1958. This allowed her to sit in the House of Lords prior to the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, which allowed suo jure hereditary peeresses to enter. She and her two younger sisters were memorialised by Anne de Courcy in The Viceroy's Daughters: the Lives of the Curzon Sisters.[1]

Background[edit]

Irene was born at 4 Carlton House Gardens, St James's the eldest child of George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, and Mary Victoria Leiter, daughter of Levi Ziegler Leiter. She inherited her father's Barony of Ravensdale, County Derby, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 20 March 1925, and was created a life peer as Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston, of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, on 6 October 1958.[2] This allowed her to sit in the House of Lords prior to the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, which allowed suo jure hereditary peeresses to enter. She and her two younger sisters were memorialised by Anne de Courcy in The Viceroy's Daughters: the Lives of the Curzon Sisters.[1]

Royal links[edit]

Irene Curzon had an intimate insight into the life of the Duke of Windsor, his friendship and marriage to Wallis Simpson and the life of the House of Windsor, through her sister, Alexandra and her brother-in-law Major Edward Dudley Metcalfe,[3] best friend of Edward VIII. She saw the rise of British fascism through her sister Lady Cynthia Mosley and her other brother-in-law Sir Oswald Mosley, with whom she had a brief fling prior to their marriage.[1][4]

The Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston

Argent on a bend Sable three popinjays Or collared Gules.[14]

In Many Rhythms: An Autobiography, (London, 1953)

Anne de Courcy, The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters (London: Phoenix, 2000)