Politics

Mary Kenny: Aristocrat who divorced Churchill’s son bed-hopped her way to glittering career

If we seek to measure how much women have changed over the past couple of generations, we might look to the life of Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela Churchill Harriman, who died in 1997 after having served as US ambassador to France (she was appointed to the job by Bill Clinton).

Pamela and Randolph Churchill on their wedding day in October 1939. Photo: Getty If we seek to measure how much women have changed over the past couple of generations, we might look to the life of Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela Churchill Harriman, who died in 1997 after having served as US ambassador to France (she was appointed to the job by Bill Clinton). Not that the lady represents ordinary women.

She was born into an English aristocratic family, the Digbys, who owned an estate at Geashill Castle, Co Offaly (it was burnt by republicans in 1922). Then at the age of 19 she married Churchill’s dreadful son, Randolph. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.