Dame Mary Carew Pole, Lady Carew Pole, DCVO (née Dawnay; born 1936) is a British courtier.
She was born in 1936, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald Dawnay (1908–1990) and Lady Elizabeth Grey (1908–1941), daughter of Charles Grey, 5th Earl Grey; through her father, she is the great-granddaughter of the 8th Viscount Downe and the 5th Marquess of Waterford, and a great-great-granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Beaufort.[1] [2]
Dawnay was the journalist and politician Aidan Crawley's secretary from 1962 to 1966. In 1970 Princess Anne, Princess Royal, appointed Dawnay to be a lady-in-waiting and she remained as such until January 2024, when she was appointed an Extra Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess.[3] For her services, she was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2003 and promoted to Dame Commander in 2018.[4] [5]
In 1974 she married John Richard Walter Reginald Carew Pole (1938–2024), who in 1993 succeeded to the Pole baronetcy of Shute House. They had two sons: