Family Life
Born Dorothy Evelyn Cavendish, she spent her first eight years at Holker Hall, Lancashire, and Lismore Castle, Ireland. She became known as Lady Dorothy from the age of eight, when her father succeeded to the dukedom, and the family moved into Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, and the other ducal estates. She received lessons in French, German, riding and golf. From the age of sixteen she lived with the family at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, where her father served as Governor General of Canada.
In 1920 she married the publisher and Conservative politician Harold Macmillan, who had been on her father's staff in Canada. Their lavish wedding, on 21 April at St. Margaret's, Westminster, was attended by royalty, aristocracy and leading literary figures, and was hailed as the social event of the London season.
Lady Dorothy was a dutiful political wife and the couple remained together (despite her long-lasting affair with the bisexual Conservative politician Robert Boothby) until her death from a heart attack at the Macmillan family estate at Birch Grove, East Sussex, in 1966. Her husband outlived her by 20 years.
She and Harold had four children:
- 1) Maurice Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden (1921–1984), a Conservative politician and publisher. Married The Honourable Katharine Ormsby-Gore, a daughter of the 4th Baron Harlech.
- 2) Lady Caroline Macmillan (born 1923). Married Julian Faber; five children.
- 3) Lady Catherine Macmillan (1926–1991). Married Julian Amery, later Baron Amery of Lustleigh, a Conservative politician; four children.
- 4) Sarah Macmillan (1930–1970). She had an unhappy life, which was blighted by a drinking problem.
Read more about this topic: Lady Dorothy Macmillan
Famous quotes containing the words family and/or life:
“Q: What would have made a family and career easier for you?
A: Being born a man.”
—Anonymous Mother, U.S. physician and mother of four. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)
“I feel the desire to be with you all the time. Oh, an occasional absence of a week or two is a good thing to give one the happiness of meeting again, but this living apart is in all ways bad. We have had our share of separate life during the four years of war. There is nothing in the small ambition of Congressional life, or in the gratified vanity which it sometimes affords, to compensate for separation from you. We must manage to live together hereafter. I can’t stand this, and will not.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)