Marita Crawley: Difference between revisions
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Marita is a direct descendant of the Russian poet, [[Alexander Pushkin]]; through Pushkin, she is descended from his African great-grandfather, [[Abram Petrovich Gannibal]] (otherwise [[Ibrahim Hannibal]]) who was Peter the Great's protégé. |
Marita is a direct descendant of the Russian poet, [[Alexander Pushkin]]; through Pushkin, she is descended from his African great-grandfather, [[Abram Petrovich Gannibal]] (otherwise [[Ibrahim Hannibal]]) who was Peter the Great's protégé. |
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In 1982, Marita married Randall Crawley, who was killed in a plane crash in Italy in 1988, leaving issue two sons and one daughter. The posthumous younger son Galen Crawley is a godson of [[Charles, Prince of Wales]]. In 2006, Marita remarried, her second husband being |
In 1982, Marita married Randall Crawley, who was killed in a plane crash in Italy in 1988, leaving issue two sons and one daughter. The posthumous younger son Galen Crawley is a godson of [[Charles, Prince of Wales]]. In 2006, Marita remarried, her second husband being [[Andrew Knight]] (b. 1939). |
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==Siblings== |
==Siblings== |
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Revision as of 21:31, 2 May 2007
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Marita Phillips, otherwise known as Marita Crawley (born 28 May 1954 in London) is a British songwriter and playwright, better known for her relationships with British and European royalty and British nobility.
She has written songs for artists such as Peter Skellern, Demis Roussos, William Lovelady and Art Garfunkel. She has also written the libretto for the opera “The Poet and the Tsar”, based on the lives of her great-great-great-grandfathers, Alexander Pushkin and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, to be performed by Helikon Opera in Moscow in 2007.
She has also written a play on Alexander Pushkin, entitled “Song from a Cage.”
Marita Phillips studied acting at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and ballet at the Nesta Brooking School before training as a mime with Adam Darius, with whom she founded and ran The Mime Centre, London.
Royal ancestry
Marita and her sisters, including the Duchess of Abercorn and the Duchess of Westminster are close to the British Royal Family, and are related distantly, via their Russian great-grandfather, to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Their maternal grandmother Lady Wernher was born Countess Anastasia de Torby (later Lady "Zia" Wernher), younger morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia (a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia) by his wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg, morganatic daughter of Prince Nicholas of Nassau (himself brother of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg by his wife, the younger daughter of Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin. Lady Zia's sister Nadezhda (or "Nada") was wife of the George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, elder maternal uncle of Prince Philip. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the prince through their common ancestor Nicholas I. It is through their Russian grand ducal father that Marita is descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover.
Marita's sister Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster is a godmother of Prince William of Wales.
Marita's mother Lady Kennard remains a close friend of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Family
Marita Georgina Phillips was born the third daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Phillips and his wife, Georgina who was the elder daughter and co-heiress of Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt, by his wife Countess Anastasia de Torby (later Lady Zia Wernher, CBE). She had a brother Nicholas Harold Phillipps (1947-1991), two older sisters including the Duchess of Abercorn, and a younger sister Natalia (the Duchess of Westminster).
Marita is a direct descendant of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin; through Pushkin, she is descended from his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal (otherwise Ibrahim Hannibal) who was Peter the Great's protégé.
In 1982, Marita married Randall Crawley, who was killed in a plane crash in Italy in 1988, leaving issue two sons and one daughter. The posthumous younger son Galen Crawley is a godson of Charles, Prince of Wales. In 2006, Marita remarried, her second husband being Andrew Knight (b. 1939).