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Lady Iris Mountbatten (1920-1982)
Born 13 January 1920 London
Died 1 September 1982 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Married (1) 15 February 1941 Haywards Heath D.1946
Hamilton Keyes O'Malley,
son of Middleton O'Malley Keyes and Jane Byrnes Malley
Born 18 October 1910 Farnborough, Hampshire
Married (2) 5 May 1957 Pound Ridge, New York D.1957
Michael Bryan,
son of James R. Bryan and Laura A. Neely
Born 9 August 1916 Byhalia, Missisippi
Died 20 August 1972 Glendale, California
Married (3) 11 December 1965 Toronto
William Kemp,
son of Clarence Kemp and Helen Janet Ballantyne
Born 10 July 1921 Toronto
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At the age of sixteen, Lady Iris was a train-bearer at the coronation
of King George VI. Three years earlier she had been a bridesmaid at the
wedding of the Duke of Kent to Princess Marina of Greece.
Her first marriage in 1941 to Captain Hamilton O'Malley ended in divorce
only five years later. "If I had divorced him, it would have been okay,
but for him to divorce me that was really scandalous," Lady Iris
said in a 1981 interview.
After the divorce, she went to America in search of work and had a
string of short-lived jobs, including selling brassieres and posing for
a bubble-gum advertisement. In 1947 she was arrested for passing a worthless
check in a Washington D.C. store. Lady Iris was cleared of the charge,
but a check by immigration officials revealed that her visitor's permit
had expired and was also working in the United States illegally. After
a visit to Canada, she was permitted to return to the U.S. on a permanent
visa.
Her second marriage, to American jazz guitarist Michael Neely Bryan,
ended after only a few months but provided her with her only child. Her
third marriage, to Canadian William Kemp, took place in Toronto in December
1965. Several weeks later the couple separated
and, although they never divorced, Lady Iris continued to live in Toronto
until her death.
When Lady Iris died in 1982, no member of the Mountbatten family or
British Royal family were present. Her ashes were brought to the Isle of
Wight for internment in the Battenberg chapel at Whippingham Church where
her grandparents had been married.
Source: Leo van de Pas |
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