Viola Grosvenor

Viola Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (10 June 1912 – 3 May 1987) was the wife of Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster.

Born Viola Maud Lyttelton, she was the daughter of Sir John Cavendish Lyttelton, 9th Viscount Cobham and Violet Yolande Leonard, and a direct descendant of Henry VII.

She married Robert Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster, son of Captain Hugh William Grosvenor and Lady Mabel Florence Mary Crichton, on 3 December 1946. The family had a home at Ely Lodge, just west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

As the Hon. Viola Maud Lyttelton she gained the rank of Flying Officer in the service of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, during the Second World War, where she was mentioned in despatches.

Her marriage to the Duke of Westminster produced three children:

• Lady Leonora Mary Grosvenor (born 1 February 1949); formerly married to Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield (3 children), has not remarried
• Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster (22 December 1951 – 9 August 2016)
• Lady Jane Meriel Grosvenor (born 8 February 1953); married firstly to Guy Innes-Ker, 10th Duke of Roxburghe (3 children, including Charles Innes-Ker, Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford) and then to Edward William Dawnay, who is a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Westminster

From 1979 until her death in 1987 she was Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh. She famously ordered workmen to drill holes in the ceiling of Florence Court, the stately home in County Fermanagh, to drain water away during a serious fire which almost destroyed it in 1955.

The Duchess died in a car accident near Dungannon, County Tyrone on 3 May 1987, aged 74.