Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Curzon engagement ends royal bride rumors

June 14, 1925

Lady Alexandra Curzon has become engaged to Major Edward Dudley Metcalf, of the Indian Cavalry,  according to an Associated Press dispatch.   There were rumors that the half-American daughter of the Marquess of was "likely to marry into the royal family."  These reports had "gained some support" because Lady Alexandra has known the sons of George V since childhood.  Lady Alexandra, who made her debut in 1922, was once linked to Prince George, the King's second youngest son.

Major Metcalfe was a member of the Prince of Wales' staff until the Prince "started in his first tour of South Africa.   The Prince and the Major met during his Indian tour, and shared common interests in hunting, horses and polo.  The  Major's primary responsibility was to "buy polo ponies and look after them."

Lady Alexandra is a goddaughter of Queen Alexandra.  She has traveled "extensively in Europe," and is a frequent visitor to her family in the United States.   She was one of the first women "of fashionable Mayfair to drive a car in London."  This action apparently caused "a considerable stir among many of the dowagers."

Lady Alexandra is the third daughter of the Marquess of Curzon and his first wife, the American heiress Mary Victoria Leiter, who died in 1906,  only two years after Alexandra's birth.   Major Metcalfe is eighteen years Lady Alexandra's senior, and is known to friends and family as 'Fruity.'

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