Anne Liddell-Grainger

Anne Mary Sibylla Abel Smith (formerly Liddell-Grainger; born 28 July 1932) is a British aristocrat and Christian charity worker. A great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, the second and third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and the second cousin of Queen Beatrix, she was married for 25 years to Scottish politician David Liddell-Grainger and is the mother of former Conservative politician Ian Liddell-Grainger. In her sixties, she attended gospel meetings in Kennington, did missionary work in Africa, and was often invited to Royal Ascot and other functions by the Queen.

Early life and education Anne was born Anne Mary Sibylla Abel Smith to Lady May Cambridge (formerly Princess May of Teck) and Sir Henry Abel Smith in 1932. She was the eldest of their three children and older sister to Richard and Elizabeth. She is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria; her maternal grandmother was Princess Alice of Albany, the eldest daughter of Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold.

She attended King's Hall Compton in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada when she was twelve.

Personal life Anne married David Liddell-Grainger, a Scottish politician, on 14 December 1957. and wore a veil made for Queen Mary's wedding and a diamond tiara which was loaned to her by a cousin.

The couple had five children,

She divorced Liddell-Grainger after almost 25 years of marriage in 1981.

Charity work In a rare interview in 1998, Abel Smith told The Mirror that she was a frequent passenger on board the hospital ship MV Anastasis, paying her own way to join Christian missions to third world countries as a volunteer.