Her father was the second son of Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt, a German-born randlord, and Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz, an heiress who was of part Polish Jewish descent.
Her mother was the morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and Countess Sophie Nikolaievna of Merenberg, a descendant of Abram Petrovich Hannibal and Alexander Pushkin.
Her godparents included the Crown Princess of Sweden (for whom her aunt, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, stood proxy).
[5] During World War II, she volunteered as a nurse with the Order of Saint John at the Market Harborough and District Hospital.
[2] Inspired by her niece, the Duchess of Abercorn, and a visit to Saint Petersburg, in 1988, she founded the Pushkin Prize in Scotland.
She was co-owner of her family's Someries Stud in Newmarket, which they sold to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 1990.