Marita Crawley

Marita Georgina Phillips (born 28 May 1954, London), a British songwriter and author, was born the third daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips and his wife, Georgina Wernher, 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).

Her lyrics have been recorded by artists such as Peter Skellern, Demis Roussos, William Lovelady and Art Garfunkel. She has written the libretto for the opera "Poet and Tsar", based on the lives of her great-great-great-grandfathers, Alexander Pushkin and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

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. She has written the book and lyrics for the children's musicals; "The Dream Dealer" and "Buzz – the story of Glorybee". She has also written the novel "The Dream Dealer".

Royal ancestry

She is the fourth of five children of Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips (1909–1980) and his wife, Georgina Wernher (1919–2011). Her eldest sister is Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn and her youngest sister is Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (a godmother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge). Marita and her siblings are close to the British Royal Family, being distantly related to both Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They are also descendants, through non-Catholic marriages, of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, in whose Protestant descendants is vested the right of succession to the British throne according to the Act of Settlement 1701.

They also descend from Russia's most renowned author and nobleman Alexander Pushkin, as well as from his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, the youth believed to have belonged to a family of tribal chieftains who became a protégé of Peter the Great.

The sisters' maternal grandmother 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 von Merenberg, morganatic daughter of Prince Nikolaus of Nassau (himself brother of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg) by his wife Natalya Aleksandrovna, Pushkin's younger daughter.

Lady Zia's sister Countess Nadezhda de Torby (or "Nada") was the wife of Prince George of Battenberg (later George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven), elder maternal uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the prince through their common ancestor, Tsar Nicholas I. Marita's paternal grandparents were Col. Joseph Harold John Phillips and his wife Mary Mercedes Bryce, whose niece Janet Mercedes Bryce (daughter of Major Francis Bryce of Hamilton, Bermuda) married David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, Nada Mountbatten's son.

Family of Marita Crawley

8. Joseph Edward John Phillips                       4. Joseph Harold John Phillips                             9. Maud Henrietta Thurnall                       2. Harold Phillips                                   20. John Bryce               10. John Pablo Bryce de Vivero                       21. Gertrudis de Vivero Morales               5. Mary Mercedes Bryce                             22. Pedro González de Candamo y Astorga               11. Mercedes González de Candamo Iriarte                       23. Mercedes Iriarte y Ribera               1. Marita Crawley                                         24. Friedrich Augustus Wernher               12. Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Baronet                       25. Elisabeth Weidenbusch               6. Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Baronet                             26. Jacob James Mankewicz               13. Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz                       27. Ada Susan Pigott               3. Georgina Wernher                                   28. Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia               14. Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia                       29. Princess Cecilie of Baden               7. Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby                             30. Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau               15. Countess Sophie von Merenberg                       31. Natalya Aleksandrovna Pushkina

In 1982, Marita married Randall Crawley (1950–1988), a son of Aidan Crawley MP and his wife Virginia Cowles, journalist and author. Randall Crawley was killed with his brother Andrew in a private plane crash near Turin in Italy on 10 September 1988, leaving issue two sons and one daughter. The posthumous younger son Galen Crawley is a godson of The Prince of Wales. In 2006, Marita remarried, her second husband being the journalist, turned media baron, Andrew Knight (b. 1939).

She is currently 1536th in line for the British throne.

Siblings

• Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn (born 27 February 1946)
• Nicholas Harold Phillips (23 August 1947 – 1 March 1991)
• Fiona Mercedes Phillips (born 30 March 1951)
• Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster (born 8 May 1959)

References

• Work of the SMA Trust
• London tribute to honor contributions to conservation and the arts
• The Wire Pushkin gets a makeover in the west
• CDI Library Russia List

Preceded by Eliza Burnett

Line of succession to the British throne

Succeeded by Aidan Crawley