India Hicks

I mean, it was an extraordinary union in the fact that my grandfather came, he was related to nearly every royal family, every European royal family, and came with this extraordinary legacy and heritage.

My grandmother came with a vast fortune and great beauty.

So together it was a very formidable marriage.

And I think to begin with, they were very in love.

And then my grandmother was probably very unsettled.

And now I'm a 58-year-old woman and I look back and she died aged 59.

And I look back and I think...

She must have felt such constraints at the time of being a woman who actually had enormous skills and this incredible power for organization.

She had an enormous Rolodex.

She knew everybody.

And yet for the first part of her life, she had nothing to do.

And there are parts of my life where I look back and think, goodness, if only I'd known that I could have done more.

And even though I'm living in this day and age, this strange upbringing.

But my grandmother, once the war broke out, she found herself and she then really dedicated herself to other people.

And she, to go back to your original question, were they a good partnership?

She became very instrumental in a lot of the work that my grandfather was doing.

Not only was he Admiral of the Fleet, he was Chief of Combined Operations during the war and then went on to be Viceroy of India.

And so having her beside him as Viceroy was very important.

And during the war, she was extraordinary.

She got to the most senior position any woman could in St.