Daška Ivanović

Daška Marija Ivanović (1915–2004), better known as Daška McLean, was the daughter of one of the founders of the Croatian National Progressive Party (NNS). She made headlines in Europe and America when she made her 18-year-old daughter a ward of the court in the U.K. after she eloped with her fiancee in 1957.

Biography

Ivanović (pronounced "Ivanovich") was born in Osijek, Austria-Hungary (present-day Croatia) on January 26 1915, the daughter of Croatian Dr. Ivan Rikard Ivanović, one of the founders of the National Progressive Party (NNS) and a deputy in Croatia's Sabor (Assembly), who had helped to form the state in 1918. Her mother, Milica, was a sister of Dušan Popović, a leading Serb politician in the ruling Croato-Serb Coalition. When her mother re-married Serbian shipping tycoon Božidar "Božo" Banac (pronounced "Banats"), her children adopted the surname Ivanović-Banac.

Her brother, Vane Ivanović, was the Consul General of Monaco. As a young woman she was considered to be one of the loveliest of Yugoslavia's society girls and was known locally as "The Pearl of Dubrovnik". Her first husband was Geoffrey Alexander Farrer Kennedy (30 October 1908 - 21 September 1996) whom she married in 1938 and with whom she had three daughters and one son. After divorcing Kennedy, she re-married Lt. Col. Neil McLean, DSO, on November 14 1949 in Rome, Italy.

In 1957, one of her daughters from her first marriage, Tessa, became a cause célèbre when, against her parents wishes, she eloped with society portrait-painter Dominick Elwes, son of Simon Elwes, a favorite artist of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. McLean and her ex-husband immediately instituted proceedings to have Elwes arrested and their daughter made a ward of court.

McLean died in London, England in 2004 at age 89.

Persondata
Name	Ivanovic, Daska
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1915
Place of birth
Date of death	2004
Place of death