Penelope Aitken

She was romantically linked with several men, including Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Esmond Harmsworth and society artist Simon Elwes (1902–1975), which caused a minor scandal as he was married and a Roman Catholic.

In December 2008, Dutch historian Cees Fasseur claimed that Jonathan Aitken was actually the result of a wartime affair between Penelope and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

She spent two years nursing him back to health, at a time when her baby son was ill with tuberculosis and the family home in London was bombed.

She devoted herself to community work in support of her husband's political career, becoming a magistrate and running the Clothing Exchange, which played a major role in helping the victims of the East Coast floods in 1953.

Later she created an English garden at her house near Santa Eulalia on the Spanish island of Ibiza, smuggling sacks of soil and rare plants through customs.

Her house and her parties were often the scene of political machinations in Conservative circles and she was often seen holding court among politicians or her family, whether in London, her local pub or the Gironde.