DUCHESS OF WESTMINSTER

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 13

DUCHESS OF WESTMINSTER

j TO WED PEER'S SOX. ! ! v FBOU OCR OW COSSBSPOXDESI.) i ! LONDON, September 30. Long-standing rumours of an engagement have been confirmed by the announcement that a marriage has been arranged between the Duchess of "Westminster and Colonel the Hon. P. H. Cripps, D.5.0., second son of Lord Parmoor. Youngest daughter of Sir William Nelson, Bart., the Duchess of Westminster was the second wife of the Duke of Westminster, whom she married in 1920, and divorced in 1926. She was formerly Mrs Violet Mary Geraldine, Rowley, her husband being a lieutenant in the Household Cavalry, and her forthcoming marriage will, therefore, be her third. Colonel Cripps'B career is a romance of adventure in war and industry. About .seven years before the war he lived in Russian, where he established the Russian-English Bank. Sir Austen Chamberlain was a member of the council. When the war came he returned to England, and took up the command of the Eoyal Bucks Hussars Yeomanry. He was wounded on Gallipoli, received the D.S.O. and bar for his services in Palestine, and in France the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Though the Russian Revolution swept away his business fortunes to the extent" of 200,000, Colonel Cripps returned to that country in 1922, and signed an agreement with the Soviet Council of Moscow to rebuild shops and public buildings. Colonel Cripps stated aft the time that he had entered into negotiations with the Beecham Trust, Ltd., for the carrying out of his work, and that it would involve many millions of pounds before it was finished.