Elizabeth, Duchess of Wellington (27 September 1820-13 August 1904) was born Lady Elizabeth Hay, a daughter of the eighth Marquess of Tweeddale. One of her brothers was the ornithologist Viscount Walden, and another the Admiral of the Fleet Lord John Hay. On the 18 April 1839 she was married to Lord Douro, eldest son of the famous general and former Tory Prime Minister the first Duke of Wellington. Lord Douro succeeded his father as second Duke of Wellington in 1852. The Duchess of Wellington was appointed Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria in 1861 by the Liberal Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, and continued in that rôle until 1868, serving through the governments of Lord Russell, Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. She was again Mistress of the Robes in Disraeli's second government, 1874 to 1880. Her husband died on the 13 August 1884, and the Dowager Duchess survived him for exactly twenty years to the day, dying at Bearhill Park, Walton-on-Thames on the 13 August 1904. They had no children.
