The Duchess, the only child of John McNeill, QC, and his wife Amy, née Maynard, was born in Shanghai.

The future duchess attended Abbot's Hill School before starting to model for Norman Hartnell.

Herbert Howells's organ piece, Siciliano for a High Ceremony, was written for and first performed on the occasion.

Lord Dalkeith, a Conservative Member of Parliament, was thrown off a horse in 1971, and, as a result, remained paralysed from the chest down.

He carried on in the House of Commons due to Lady Dalkeith's perseverance, although she herself was a sympathiser of the Scottish National Party.