Margaret Rhodes, First Cousin of Queen Elizabeth, Has Died

The Honourable Margaret Rhodes, a first cousin and close friend of Queen Elizabeth II, passed away on Friday evening after a short illness. She was 91 years old.

Mrs Rhodes and the Queen were close companions as children, being born only ten months apart (Mrs Rhodes in June 1925, the Queen in April 1926). Margaret was the youngest daughter of Lady Mary Bowes-Lyon, an older sister of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and her husband the 16th Lord Elphinstone.

In 1947, Margaret was one of the Queen’s bridesmaids when she married Prince Philip; before herself marrying in 1950. Margaret and her husband, Denys Rhodes, had four children. In the 1970s, the Rhodes’s moved into Garden House in Windsor Great Park, at the bequest of the Queen, while Mr Rhodes was receiving cancer treatment. It was here that the Queen and Margaret would meet on Sundays following church for tea while the monarch was in residence at Windsor.

Margaret was appointed a Woman of the Bedchamber to the Queen Mother in 1991, a post she held until her aunt died in 2002.

Many will recognise Mrs Rhodes as being a frequent commentator in documentaries on Queen Elizabeth. She most recently appeared in Our Queen At Ninety earlier this year to mark the Queen’s milestone birthday.

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