Princess Anne

Princess Anne of Denmark (formerly Anne Anson, Viscountess Anson, née Anne Ferelith Fenella Bowes-Lyon; 4 December 1917 – 26 September 1980) was a first cousin of Elizabeth II and the mother of royal photographer Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield and Lady Elizabeth Anson. She became a Princess of Denmark through her second marriage.

Spouses

- Thomas Anson, Viscount Anson, ​(m. 1938; div. 1948)​. 
- Prince George Valdemar of Denmark, ​(m. 1950)​

Issue Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield
Lady Elizabeth Anson 

Full name Anne Ferelith Fenella

Father John Herbert Bowes-Lyon 
Mother Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis

Family

Anne Bowes-Lyon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1917. Her father was the Hon. John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and her mother was the Hon. Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, daughter of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton. Anne had three younger sisters, two of whom were Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, who were institutionalized from 1941 for severe mental retardation.

Anne's paternal grandfather was Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, father of her aunt Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Marriages

Anne married Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Arnold Anson (1913–1958) on 28 April 1938. As her husband held the courtesy title of Viscount Anson, Anne was styled Viscountess Anson upon their marriage. They were divorced in 1948. They had two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren:

• (Thomas) Patrick John Anson (25 April 1939 – 11 November 2005), who later succeeded his grandfather as the 5th Earl of Lichfield. He married Lady Leonora Grosvenor, daughter of the Duke of Westminster, on 8 March 1975 and they were divorced circa 1986. They have three children and four grandchildren.
• Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Anson (7 June 1941 – 1 November 2020), who worked as a party planner for the Queen. She married Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet on 27 July 1972 and they were divorced in 2009. They have one daughter and two grandchildren.

On 16 September 1950, at Glamis Castle she subsequently married Prince George Valdemar of Denmark, upon which she became Princess Anne of Denmark.

Anne died in 1980, aged 62, in London, of a heart attack.