Lady Sibell dies, aged 98

Her funeral was held at Madresfield Church on Wednesday, November 9, followed by refreshments at Madresfield Court, her childhood home.

She has been buried in the Lygon family plot at Madresfield Churchyard, where generations of the family are buried.

Born Sibell Lygon on October 10, 1907, one of the 7th Earl's seven children, she grew up at Madresfield Court, the family seat.

Her siblings included William, the 8th and last Earl Beauchamp, and Mary, who married Prince Vsevolode Joannovitch of Russia, son of Prince John Constaninovitch of Russia and his wife Princess Helene of Serbia.

Another brother, Hugh, was a friend of writer Evelyn Waugh at Oxford and Waugh visited Madresfield Court and the Lygon family many times.

Waugh modelled Brideshead Revisited on Madresfield Court and its occupants, particularly the 7th Earl, who was the inspiration for the character of Lord Marchmain.

Writing to The Times just last year, Lady Sibell talked of her partying days in London before the war, when she and her sister Lettice would attend balls and parties almost every night.

One night they left a party so late they knew the door would be locked at home. Not having a key, they went instead to 10 Downing Street - the only place they knew with a night porter to let them in.

Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin telephoned their father the next morning. He refused to send a maid over with their day clothes and the girls had to leave in their Norman Hartnell ball gowns.

Sibell married RAF Flight-Lieutenant Michael Rowley in 1939.

Both keen supporters of the Ledbury Hunt, Sibell herself became Master of Fox Hounds. Her husband died in 1952. The couple had no children.

The Lygon family probably came to England from Normandy with William the Conquerer, but the first recorded Lygons were those of Madresfield Court in the 12th Century.

The Lygon family has lived there ever since and today Madresfield Court is occupied by Lady Morrison, Sibell's neice.