Iris Dawnay

Iris Irene Adele Dawnay LVO (née Peake; 23 July 1923 – 18 November 2021) was a British aristocrat who worked as a MI6 secretary and was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.

She was the eldest child of Osbert Peake, a barrister and politician who was later created Viscount Ingleby, and Lady Joan Rachel de Vere Capell (1899–1979), youngest daughter of the 7th Earl and Countess of Essex.

[1] After the war, she worked for the Conservative Research Department before being scouted as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret in December 1951.

[4] One month after her appointment, George VI died and she moved with Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House.

[3] In 1963, she married Captain Oliver Payan Dawnay, a divorcé with three children who had been the Queen Mother's private secretary.

Dawnay on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following Elizabeth II's coronation on 2 June 1953. She can be seen fifth from right, behind Princess Margaret.