Lady Camilla Osborne

Lady Camilla Dorothy Godolphin Osborne (formerly Harris and Dempster; born 14 August 1950) is an English heiress. She is the only child of John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds.

Lady Camilla Osborne
BornCamilla Dorothy Godolphin Osborne
(1950-08-14) 14 August 1950
Noble familyOsborne
Spouse(s)Julian Brownlow Harris (divorced)
​
​
(m. 1977; div. 2002)​
Issue
Emily Kate Godolphin Harris
Louisa Beatrix Dempster
FatherJohn Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds
MotherAudrey Young

Early life and family

Lady Camilla Osborne was born on 14 August 1950 to John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds, and his second wife, Audrey Young.[1][2] She grew up in Jersey, where her parents moved to avoid heavy taxes.[3]

Her parents divorced in 1955 after her mother had an affair with a Guards officer. Her mother later remarried to Sir David Roland Walter Lawrence, 3rd Baronet.[4]

Osborne's father married a third time in 1955 to Caroline Fleur Vatcher.[5]

In 1963, at age 13, Osborne's father died without any male issue. Due to primogeniture, Osborne could not inherit her father's dukedom.[6] The titles of her father passed to his cousin Sir D'Arcy Osborne, making him the 12th Duke of Leeds. When D'Arcy Osborne died in 1964 without issue, the Dukedom of Leeds went extinct.[7][5][8]

While she was not able to inherit the dukedom from her father, she did inherit money from his personal estate upon his death along with an annual allowance. In 1971 she inherited £1,000,000 (equivalent to £12,970,000 in 2016) from the family trust.[9][10]

Osborne studied philosophy and English at Newcastle University, but left after a year.[11]

Personal life

Osborne married Julian Brownlow Harris and in 1972 gave birth to a daughter, Emily Kate Godolphin Harris. The couple later divorced. In 1975 she became engaged to Christopher Moorsom, but later called off the engagement.[11]

Osborne married a second time to Nigel Richard Patton Dempster[12] in 1977 at the Chelsea Register Office.[13][14][15][11] The couple spent the first years of their marriage living separately.[16] She gave birth to another daughter, Louisa Beatrix Dempster, in 1979.[11][17][18] The marriage was dissolved in 2002.[19][20] Nigel Dempster and Lady Camilla remained close after their divorce.[21] Dempster died on 12 July 2007. Osborne was present at his funeral.[22]

Osborne stated that she believed her father, having sold the family estate Hornby Castle, lived an unhappy life without purpose.[23][24][5][25]

In 2004, Osborne sold a painting by William Oram that had been painted for one of the Dukes of Leeds.[26][27]

Osborne was featured in the BBC Two documentary The Last Dukes.[5][28][3]

References
  1. "Lady Camilla Dorothy Godolphin Osborne: Thrale.com". www.thrale.com.
  2. Griffiths, Peter. "British gossip columnist Nigel Dempster dies".
  3. Real Stories (31 July 2017). "The Last Dukes (British Aristocracy Documentary) - Real Stories" – via YouTube.
  4. "Audrey (née Young), Duchess of Leeds (later Lady Lawrence) - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  5. Midgley, Dominic (24 October 2015). "BBC documentary reveals Britain's dukes last of a dying breed".
  6. "The Last Dukes - Spun Gold". www.spungoldtv.com.
  7. "BBC Documentaries - The Last Dukes @ TheTVDB". www.thetvdb.com.
  8. "PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News". www.pressreader.com.
  9. Inc, Time (8 August 1969). LIFE. Time Inc. p. 58 – via Internet Archive. Camilla.
  10. Willis, Tim Nigel Dempster and the Death of Discretion, Short Books, 2010, ISBN 1906021848
  11. Willis, Tim (4 September 2010). Nigel Dempster and the Death of Discretion. Short Books. ISBN 9781907595325 – via Google Books.
  12. "The Windsor Watchers".
  13. "Gossip columnist Dempster dies".
  14. "Daily Mail's Nigel Dempster, doyen of newspaper diarists, dies aged 65".
  15. "Columnist Nigel Dempster dies at 65". 12 July 2007.
  16. "Nigel Dempster". 12 July 2007 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  17. "Columnist Dempster dies aged 65". 12 July 2007 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  18. Martin, Douglas. "Nigel Dempster Dies at 65; Made Gossip Respectable".
  19. "The last dance".
  20. Barker, Dennis (12 July 2007). "Obituary: Nigel Dempster". the Guardian.
  21. "Nigel Dempster - Independent.ie".
  22. "Thanksgiving Service Nigel Dempster". 18 October 2007 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  23. "Modern Times: The Last Dukes - Interesting Media". interestingmedia.co.uk.
  24. https://dianachambers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Sunday-Times-Diana-Chambers-29-01-17.pdf
  25. "Downton and Dukedom: The real-life Lady Marys saving our country houses - The F-Word". www.thefword.org.uk.
  26. http://www.lanefineart.com/component/virtuemart/shop.product_details/6/flypage.tpl/index2.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&only_page=1&product_id=51&pop=1&tmpl=component&
  27. "William Oram A Wooded Landscape with a View of Classical Ruins". www.jamesharveybritishart.com.
  28. "Strange people doing strange things: Tonight's TV highlight: The Last Dukes, BBC2, 9pm". HeraldScotland.
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