The hardest working royal you’ve never heard of: Queen Elizabeth II’s first cousin Lady Ogilvy

The late Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Lady Ogilvy, a bridesmaid at her 1947 wedding, has featured in a newly released portrait of working royals celebrating the King’s coronation.

Princess Alexandra, 86, stands between the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh as the working royals marked the end of the weekend’s events and celebrations.

Edward and Sophie were seen to support Lady Ogilvy sweetly, who smiled broadly, as they both helped her by holding her arms.

Always posh, typically diplomatic, she never put a foot wrong in her life of public service. But the polished exterior hides a history of upheaval and upheaval that would have long ago forced a lesser woman to retire from public duties.

She may be unrecognizable to many who look at the new portrait, but Lady Ogilvy was not only the cousin of the late Queen, but also one of her closest friends and was once referred to as the “unsung heroine” of the royal family.

The Queen and HRH Princess Alexandra arrive at London’s Royal Festival Hall for a concert to benefit the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind in 1962

Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Alexandra, The Honorable Lady Ogilvy arrive in the royal procession on Day 2 of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse in June 2018

Princess Elizabeth, Princess Alexandra of Kent and Princess Margaret pictured outside Romsey Abbey, Hampshire, for the wedding of Captain Lord Brabourne and Patricia Mountbatten

A biographer also described her as “the world’s most efficient working princess.”

Her regal style is muted and unobtrusive, in stark contrast to some of the more lurid events that have surrounded her life.

She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1943, while her own wedding to businessman Sir Angus Ogilvy 20 years later was broadcast to around 200 million people.

Lady Ogilvy is 56th in line to the throne, but she has been an integral part of the royal family for six decades and a permanent fixture.

Her father is the Duke of Kent, one of George VI’s younger brothers, and the former king was one of her godparents. Her mother was Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.

Royal biographer Hugo Vickers told The Telegraph: “If you were a royal spectator standing in the street, you wouldn’t like anyone more than them.

“She’s a kind of national treasure. She is the genuine article: the most regal of them all.’

Alexandra’s early years were marked by the seemingly endless sale of treasured family possessions, humiliatingly stripped of their homes and reclaimed from various other royal houses. They were misleadingly priced for disposal in the salesrooms as ‘excess of need’.

The town house in London’s Belgrave Square where Alexandra was born “to the sound of a lone Christmas caroler in the street” was sold – but her mother, Princess Marina, was still in the red by the bank.

Lady Ogilvy is 56th in line to the throne, but she has been an integral part of the royal family for six decades and a permanent fixture. Pictured: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s official wedding portrait

The wedding group at St James’s Palace, London, during the reception following the wedding of Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy

The thrifty king, George VI, saved her with a small allowance, but Marina “acquired a reputation for meanness,” according to her biographer Audrey Whiting. What else could she do without real income?

Against this background, her daughter Alexandra became the first royal princess to be sent to school – Heathfield, in Sussex – rather than being home-schooled.

And when her niece Elizabeth became queen at the age of 39 following the untimely death of her father in an RAF crash in Scotland, Alexandra was catapulted up the ranks of the royal order and became sixth in line to the throne.

Her mother was also only 61 when she died of a brain tumor.

But throughout her adult life, Lady Ogilvy remained a hard-working and active royal, attending about 120 public appearances a year.

This included missions to Japan in 1961, to help restore diplomatic relations after the war.

Mr Vickers added: “If you were a royal guard standing in the street, there’s no one you’d like to see more than them.

“She never did anything other than royal duties all her life – there weren’t that many members of the royal family around when she started working”

Princess Alexandra photographed at her granddaughter’s wedding in September 2021, where she wore a smart blazer and polka dot dress that she paired with cream colored accessories

From left to right, Pamela Mountbatten, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth stand outside Romsey Abbey, Hampshire in their bridesmaid dresses after attending the wedding of Captain Lord Brabourne and Patricia Mountbatten

Sir Angus Ogilvy, Princess Alexandra, The Honorable Lady Ogilvy, Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth II’s Racing Manager Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon attend the Epsom Derby in June 1989

Despite barely having a penny to her name, she was the most desirable woman in Britain and the hot tip was that she would marry Lord O’Neill, an old Etonian landowner three years her senior, whose stepfather was the James Bond author Ian Fleming.

Instead she chose yet another Old Etonian, the Hon Angus Ogilvy, the son of the royal family’s Earls of Airlie.

They were married at Westminster Abbey in a glass-carriage procession and held a white-tie ball at Windsor Castle the night before.

At the Queen’s invitation, the newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Birkhall (now the Scottish home of Prince Charles and Camilla).

Her relationship with the late monarch would only continue to grow over the years and she was awarded the Garter in 2003, along with an 80th birthday party at Buckingham Palace in 2016.

Princess Alexandra’s eldest child, James Ogilvy, is considered a landscape gardener and became close to Prince Edward after they went to school together.

Her daughter Marina is also the goddaughter of King Charles.

Her granddaughter Flora Ogilvy, an art curator, married Swedish financier Timothy Vesterberg in September 2020 – during Covid restrictions.

They celebrated the wedding when restrictions were lifted in September 2021, in the presence of members of the royal family.

Guests included the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, as well as Lord Frederick Windsor and his Peep Show actress wife Sophie Winkleman.

Princess Alexandra also wore pink for the big day, wearing a smart blazer and polka dot dress that she paired with cream colored accessories.

Today she is as regal, as hard-working, as endearing and eternally chic as she has always been.

The delight of the royals to see her join them for the official portrait is a testament to her popularity.