Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
The Lady Home of the Hirsel | |
Known For: | Spouse of the prime minister of the United Kingdom (1963–64) |
Birth Name: | Elizabeth Hester Alington |
Birth Date: | 6 November 1909 |
Nationality: | British |
Father: | Cyril Alington |
Children: | 4, including David, 15th |
Elizabeth Hester Douglas-Home, Baroness Home of the Hirsel (; 6 November 1909 – 3 September 1990) was the wife of British politician and prime minister Alec Douglas-Home.
She was born Elizabeth Hester Alington, the second daughter of the Very Rev Cyril Alington—headmaster of Shrewsbury School and Eton College successively, as well as chaplain to King George V—and his wife, Hester Margaret Lyttelton, daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton. Elizabeth was the first woman to become a fellow (governor) of Eton.
She married Alec Douglas-Home on 3 October 1936. Thanks to her husband acquiring and renouncing various titles, she had, according to The Guinness Book of Records, more names successively in her lifetime than any other once-married, British-only woman.
The couple had four children:
She died on 3 September 1990 at the age of 80.[1] Her husband outlived her by just over five years. They had been married for nearly 54 years.