Identifying the Princess Radziwill whom Baroness Trumpington met in Waitrose

In the autobiography of Baroness Trumpington, Jean Alys Barker, a prominent English political figure who sat in the House of Lords for 37 years and in her day held ministerial office, there is the sweetest episode in the whole history of memoirs:.

“A few months ago I was doing my weekly shopping in Waitrose, and a rather pretty, rather elegant little white-haired lady bumped into me, and I bumped into her. After it all I explained: ‘Listen! My name is Baroness Trumpington, I am blind and I did not see you, I was at Bletchley.’ The little white-haired lady, who was wearing a pink trouser suit and a string of pearls, said: ‘I am Princess Radziwill and I worked in Baker Street.’ I exclaimed: ‘That is simply marvellous!’
I knew what Baker Street had really been: it was the headquarters of secret operations, where all the 007 agents were briefed before being sent to France during the war.
“I am 89,” said the Princess.
“I am 90,” said I. And the two of us, a pair of ancient ladies who had never met before, congratulated each other on our war efforts, on the chance conjunction of circumstances that brought us together in Waitrose in Knightsbridge, and on the fact that we were both still alive.”

It is interesting how Trumpington’s biography glints through this tiny tale. Take the mention of intelligence and fighting spirit: during the Second World War the Baroness served in intelligence and worked on cryptography, and the codebreakers’ offices were located at Bletchley.

Finding out whom exactly Jean Alys Barker had collided with prompted me to undertake a genuine genealogical investigation; I even had to telephone an acquaintance, a lady of the Radziwill family, in order to synchronise watches.

First of all, it should be observed that Radziwill is not the scarcest of aristocratic surnames in our day: there are no fewer than 12 living Princesses Radziwill alone. By the fairly clearly defined criterion of age, several candidates fit, most of whom died long before the meeting described. Take, for example, Lida (Dominique) Lacey Bloodgood, wife of Dominik Rainer Radziwill, who was indeed born in 1923; but Lida departed this world in 2008, that is, 4 years before the encounter recorded, and in Rome, not in London. Another, the famous Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy, might quite well have run into the Baroness in a shop, but she was born in 1933, ten years later than our mysterious acquaintance, and hardly anyone in their right mind (and she was most certainly that) would pad their age with ten superfluous years; besides, the image of that society diva, who certainly needs no introduction, does not at all fit the description of a “little white-haired old lady”.

If I have understood correctly, the Baroness met Grace Maria Kolin, who after her first marriage was styled Princess Radziwill. Yet here too there are several odd circumstances: the marriage of the Croatian Kolin to Radziwill ended in divorce in 1958, after which she wed William Ward, 3rd Earl of Dudley, who was 29 years her senior and left this world 8 years later.

So why might Madame Grace have introduced herself as Maria Radziwill? Setting aside the answer of the whims of an 89-year-old woman, especially considering that the third wife of her first husband Stanisław Radziwill is still alive (none other than that same Lee, incidentally). One might suppose that she simply disliked being called the Dowager Countess of Dudley? In the first place, she was after all the mother of Prince Jan Radziwill, and in the second, a princely title ranks far above a comital one. Incidentally, in her best-known photograph Grace Kolin is precisely in a pink suit.

Grace died in her 94th year, on 29 December 2016, while Baroness Trumpington passed away yesterday, 26 November 2018, at the age of 96.