Margaret Etienne Hannah Crewe-Milnes, Marchioness of CreweCIJP known to her friends as Peggy,[1] (1 January 1881 - 13 March 1967), styled as Countess of Crewe from 1899 until 1911; was a Rothschild family heiress, and after the death in 1929 of her father, the former Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, she was said to be the richest woman in England. From 1922 she spent six years in Paris after her husband was made British Ambassador to France.[2]
During World War II she was much involved with organizations to help Free French in Britain, founding the French in Great Britain Fund in 1940. After the war, in June 1946 she was awarded the highest French order of merit, the Knight of the Legion of Honour. She and her husband bought West Horsley Place in Sussex on their return from Paris.[3] She was also decorated with the award of Imperial Order of the Crown of India.[4]
In 1911, Crewe-Milnes had two children: a son, Richard (1911–1922),[11] and a daughter, Mary Crewe-Milnes, who was born in 1915 and married George Innes-Ker, the 9th Duke of Roxburghe, in 1935.[12][13]