Idonea Fane

Idonea Elizabeth Fane (27 Feb 1912–7 June 2001) was the daughter of Major Henry Nevile Fane (1895–2 Aug 1947) and Harriet Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis (14 Nov 1887–15 Mar 1958). She was the granddaughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton.

Her mother was the sister of Fenella Trefusis, who was married to John Herbert Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother's brother and the second son of the Earl of Strathmore—making Idonea a niece of the Queen Mother, by marriage.

She had been kept, unvisited by the Royal Family, in Royal Earlswood Hospital (a psychiatric institution) from 1941 until the hospital closed in 1996 with her cousin Katherine Bowes-Lyon. She was then moved to Ketwin House, Surrey, England. Her two sisters Etheldreda Flavia Fane (30 December 1922–8 March 1996) and Rosemary Jean Fane (born 16 April 1914) were also mentally impaired, as were two of her cousins; Katherine Bowes-Lyon and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon.

Buckingham Palace did not announce her death until a year after the event. She received a pauper's funeral in council-run Redstone Cemetery, with a basic headstone. Her sister Etheldreda and cousin Nerissa Bowes-Lyon are also buried there.

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/14/npaup14.xml 13 April 2002 Daily Telegraph report]