December 15, 2010

We were informed of the sad news that Yvonne Henriette Marie Spencer Churchill passed away in her sleep on Monday, 13 December. Yvonne was the second wife of Henry Winston Peregrine Spencer Churchill and daughter-in-law to Major Jack Spencer Churchill, who was the brother of Winston Spencer Churchill. They had been married since 22 December 1957.

Yvonne has taken ill suddenly on Friday just before bedtime. Yvonne’s caregiver called her private doctor just before 10:00 pm. He arrived promptly and diagnosed that she had the symptoms of a brain hemorrhage. An ambulance was immediately called and she was taken to Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, but she had fallen into unconsciousness and she was no longer responding. And so it was to the end.

The Churchill family and Yvonne’s friends, including Celia and John Lee, who had looked after her since Peregrine died suddenly in 2002, took it in turns to sit by her bedside. She died quietly and peacefully in her sleep, in a private room, just before 12:30 pm on Monday without having regained consciousness.

Celia Lee said that she and her husband John were over with Yvonne the Sunday before last, and “Yvonne was in good form and good health, all dressed up as usual and looked quite well. She looked as though she would live to be 100”.

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A pre-Christmas tea party had been organised to take place at Yvonne’s flat this Sunday past. John Lee had the food ready, the presents were wrapped and the cards written. Alas never to happen.

Yvonne’s lawyer Robert Sykes advised by e-mail on Tuesday that the funeral will take place in January.

Read the obituary written by Celia Lee here.