In October 1940, King George VI granted her the rank of a daughter of a marquess in honour of her father, who was heir presumptive to his brother.

Following the war, her passion for art led her to take a job at Spink & Son auction house, where she met her future husband.

She had a caustic wit with which she could deflate any balloon, and an instantaneously wholesome reaction to nonsensical views and impractical proposals.

Among them was total intellectual honesty, physical courage, a disregard for unimportant luxuries and an unemotional acceptance of the pleasant and the unpleasant without pride and complacency in the one case or envy and complaint in the otherOn 22 April 1948, she married Alan Philip Hay at Holy Trinity Church in Arrow, Warwickshire.

Queen Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh attended her memorial service held at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington Barracks in Westminster, as did the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.