The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 25

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1999 25 OBITUARIES Lady Mary Whitley Cousin of the Queen whose example persuaded King George VI to let his daughter join the wartime ATS Lady Mary beside Princess Margaret on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after the royal wedding, November 20 1947; and (below) in a photograph by Baron, 1950 LADY MARY WHITLEY, who has died aged 75, was a second cousin the Queen and a bridesmaid at four royal weddings. She was a childhood friend of the Queen and was invited to Sandringham for Christmas annually between 1927 and 1939, the war intervened. She recalled that as children she and the Queen would be summoned to King George V's study at bedtime, when they would scramble over his red boxes to sit on his knee and be rewarded with a whiskery kiss on the cheek. She and Princess Elizabeth learned to ride together, were Girl Guides in the Buckingham Palace troop and shared dancing and drawing lessons. They even caught influenza simultaneously.

Both cousins were child bridesmaids at the weddings of Lady May Cambridge (the daughter of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone) to Major Henry Abel Smith in 1931, and at those of the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1934 and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in 1935, in dresses designed by a young Norman Hartnell. Lady Mary was one of the few surviving members of the Royal Family who attended the funeral of King George travelling in a state landau drawn by a pair of bay horses (the other survivors are the Queen Mother, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and the Earl of Harewood). Likewise, she processed into Westminster Abbey with the more distant members of the Royal Family at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. She was born Lady Mary Ilona Margaret Cambridge, the only child of the 2nd Marquess of Cambridge and his wife Dorothy Hastings, on September 24 1924 at No 19 Lowndes Square, the London house of her aunt, Lady Helena Gibbs. She descended from the 1st Duke of Teck, who in turn descended morganatically from the German royal house of The 2nd Duke of Teck became the 1st Marquess of Cambridge in 1917.

Had Lady Mary a boy, she would have become the 3rd Marquess; and in German royal circles, she was deemed to be the last Princess of Teck, though she scoffed at such Continental pretensions. Lady Mary's great-grandmother, Princess Mary Adelaide, was a grand-daughter of King George III by his seventh son, the Duke of Cambridge. As such, Lady Mary Cambridge as she was known from 1927 until her marriage was linked to what was called the old Royal Family, the relations of Queen Mary (her great-aunt), Athlones, the Beauforts and the Abel Smiths. Lady Mary was raised in royal circles and christened in lace and muslin in the chapel of Marlborough House. Queen Mary was her godmother.

Perhaps her finest hour came during the war. Although only 17, she started work as a hand at Poplar Hospital in east ment), working not in some luxurious hospital for officers where her presence London, where took her Red Cross have been more than exams. According to the Queen's indiscreet poorest parts of blitzed governess, Marion Crawford, it was Lady did a wonderful job." King Mary's example that inspired Princess Eliza- want his daughter to join beth to take as full a part as possible she was allowed to serve in war effort: "Her cousin, Lady Mary Cam- In 1946, Lady Mary bridge was a VAD (Voluntary Air Detach- and Princess Elizabeth in Lady White Labour MP who became the first woman Minister of State for Foreign Affairs THE LADY WHITE, the former Labour MP Eirene White who has died aged 90, represented East Flint, Wales, from 1950 to 1970; she 0 was also the first woman to hold the office of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Eirene White first came to prominence in 1947 when, as a little known Labour activist, she was elected to the Women's Section of the parNational Executive. Six years later, she created a sensation when, in a characteristically independent and courageous protest against what she called the "bludgeons of the Right and poisoned arrows of the she refused to stand for election to the Executive again.

This was a gesture that reflected the feelings of many moderate Labour supporters at that time, although it was to little avail as the quarrelling between the supporters of Hugh Gaitskell and Nye Bevan went on unabated. Eirene White waited a further six years before standing again. In spite of being on the Right of the party, she won and retained her seat on the Executive until stepping down in 1972. She was Party Chairman from 1968 to 1969. This success within the party, combined with her ability to hold on to a highly marginal constituency for 20 years albeit with a majority which at one point fell to 72 reflected the respect that her political courage and intelligence inspired.

But her career failed perhaps to fulfil all it had once promised. She was born Eirene Lloyd Jones in Belfast on November 7 1909, the daughter of Thomas Jones, who later became Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet under four Prime Ministers, from Lloyd George to MacDonald, and was known as "the man of a thousand After attending St Paul's Girls' School, she went up to Somerville College, Oxford, to read PPE. She celebrated Clifford Longley SACRED AND PROFANE These days, Christmas belongs to everyone THE BBC World Service lives in a world of its own, a little disconnected from mainstream media culture. Thus I approached an invitation to be one of the studio guests in a World Service phone-in on the subject of Christmas last week with considerable curiosity. The producer's premise not something one would see widely debated in the British media that Christmas had unibecomes versal festival, increasingly celebrated in traditionally as well as traditionally Christian cultures countries.

This was highly plausible. Notwithstanding the awful things that have been done in his name, the figure of Jesus is not itself divisive. Muslims rank him second only to the Prophet; Hindus recognise holy man akin to their own gurus; Buddhists find a lot of his teachings instinctively familiar, especially in Zen. A leading Jainist monk once declared that Jesus was the only founder of a religion that other religions could respect and revere without difficulty. ism there nition of albeit one has been tianity (until eration of ship, that feast itself, an event Christian calendar, everyone originally from The calls and Bush firmed the Even in Juda- heightened is increasing recog- of the "Jesus the and being whose Jewishness least one obscured by Chris- something the present gen- this new Biblical scholaris).

The though in the 'The festival liturgical was, as is growing in knows, significance borrowed paganism. incoming e-mails to House conhypothe- as a symbol of global solidarity' sis. There were indeed Western cynics and New-Agers phoning in to tell the world that Christianity was finished. But as was clear from calls from as far as Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, this was somewhat beside the point in countries where Christmas had only recently started. They all seemed to find some spiritual significance in it.

In the case of Muslims, Christmas this year coincides with Ramadan; in the case of Jews, it falls on the Sabbath. For Eastern Orthodox Christians, it is not celebrated until January 7. But it is the Western Christmas, December 25, that is increasingly observed throughout the world. People elsewhere take from the Christmas festival whatever they want or need decorations, partying, a break from work, presents for loved ones, even cards, carols and "goodwill to all men" and leave the churchy bits alone. Nevertheless, an anthropologist studying this new global Christmas would have found enough clues to conclude that these are how people have always celebrated an occasion of great personal happiness such as the birth of a new child.

And, like the celebration of the birth of a child, local custom varies widely. It seems that Christmas belongs to everyone, even non-Christians, and there is no Big Brother telling us that we must do it this way or that. From time to time, fundamentalist or totalitarian regimes have, prohibited the celebration Christmas even in the more Calvinist parts of Scotland in the 19th century a fact which gives the festival a slightly subversive edge. Celebrating Christmas in non-Christian cultures may even be a way of defying religious or state authorities, and thereby it becomes an expression of human freedom. This is not at all contrary to the Christian idea of Christmas, which is about the pricelessness of a new-born child and therefore the worth and dignity of every member of humanity.

Thanks to the ever more widespread global culture, there are more neighbours in the world and fewer strangers; and Christmas is an excellent time to remember that fact. Every living person is a cousin of every other to some degree: there are no inferior branches of the human family. It was a frequent refrain of these international World Service callers that Christmas dringham to stay with Queen Mary. The antics of the young ladies and their Guards officer friends caught the disapproving eye of Queen Mary's austere Lady-in-Waiting, Mabell Countess of Airlie, who noted that jigsaw puzzles were now to be found in the to hall and that the young people "congregated round them from morning till while worse still "the radio worked by Princess Elizabeth blared Eventually, Lady Airlie came to like the new informality. Lady Mary was one of Princess Elizabeth's bridesmaids at her wedding in Westminster Abbey in November 1947, again dressed by Hartnell.

On the morning of the service she took her King Charles spaniel for a walk. It was a damp day and her hair became frizzy. It was too late to tend to this, a fact that the eagle-eyed Queen Mary did not fail to notice and to comment on sharply at the wedding breakfast. Three years later, Lady Mary married Peter Whitley, a former Grenadier Guards officer, at All Saints', Kirtling, Newmarket. She had met her husband while crewing on a yacht; a whirlwind romance followed and were swiftly engaged.

Peter Whitley was the son of Sir Norman Whitley, Chief Justice of Uganda from 1937 to 1947, and his wife Florence Erskine, from whom he was divorced in 1941. Queen Mary had hoped for a "grander she did not attend the wedding, but she gave her a diamond bow brooch, which she her wedding daughter gown. The only royal guests were Princess Alice and the Earl of Athlone, with the Girl Guides as a guard of honour. By marrying, Lady Mary left official royal circles. She and her husband were present in the royal gallery in Westminster Abbey at the Coronation in 1953, but she no longer processed.

Lady Mary was shy by nature, but her innate good humour was never far beneath the surface. She was an excellent raconteur, with a great gift for mimicry and: a wellhoned, dry sense of humour. interests were eclectic: she ran a pack of beagles into her seventies, she was an adventurous cook (like her mother), and she was an inveterate traveller, especially to offbeat parts of the She also enjoyed bird-watching and sailing, and she converted a wilderness into a garden of much charm at her last home in Somerset, high in the Brendon Hills. Her marriage to Peter Whitley was an enduring partnership which never faltered. During the last 18 months, when a stroke confined her to a nursing home, scarcely a day passed without a visit from him.

Lady Mary is survived by her husband, and by their son and daughter. Col TH Robinson MC at the crossing of the Garigliano COLONEL TH "ROBBIE" ROBINSON, who has died aged 87, was awarded an MC and mentioned in despatches when commanding 225 AntiTank Battery in Italy in 1944. Early that year, at the crossing of the Garigliano, the regiment was ordered to produce 240 gunners to act as porters for 56th Infantry Division. Robinson commanded the party, known as which was drawn from three batteries. He organised it into small groups to evacuate wounded from forward areas, to carry loads for observation posts, and to supply rations and ammunition to forward infantry units.

These tasks, to which the gunners were completely unaccustomed, were carried out under extremely exhausting and hazardous conditions and led to many casualties. Nevertheless, every day Robinson managed to visit each one of these small groups and his courage, enthusiasm, cheerfulness and regard for their welfare inspired all the officers and under his command. His unflagging efforts under the most tiring and difconditions were described as "beyond all praise" and the citation for his subsequent MC recorded that his tireless energy and spirited leadership had resulted in outstandingly high morale in the battery. Thomas Harold Robinson, always known as Robbie, was born on February 12 1912 and educated at Wilson's, Camberwell. He joined the Territorial Army in 1934 and was commissioned in 1938.

He served in France and Belgium as a battery commander in 57 Anti-Tank Regiment, was evacuated from Dunkirk, and after a period in coastal defence in 1941, was posted to the Western Desert. There he commanded 225 Anti-Tank Battery and fought in the battles everyone's sense suffering in the world, aware of it is at step towards about it. Hence, international, notnecessarily-Christian Christmas is acquiring growing significance as a symbol of global solidarity. Many callers found the British or American itch to suppress Christmas in the name of political correctness not just fatuous and ignorant but akin to but in the where she George VI did not but eventually ATS. the King train to San- brain-washing "them" telling "us" what we are permitted to think.

One Hindu caller got quite angry about it. Commercialisation of Christmas was found problematical by Muslims, Hindus and even Jewish callers as well as Christian ones. But they agreed that it was better for Christmas to have business on its side than against it. Business didn't like the old British Sunday, and that could not stand against the tide. Christmas can put a smile on the face of the most Scroogelike accountant, which is one good reason why it will still be around 500 years from now.

Christians should not worry about this wholesale international "borrowing" of Christmas, not only by business the link between trade and the spread of faith is an ancient one but also by other religions and cultures. Indeed, they should take care not to do anything to make the celebration of Christmas more exclusive to themselves. The subliminal Christmas the story of a strange and special birth in a strange and special land, with all the agony and pity that went with it is itself a powerful conveyor of Christian truth. The test is simply: does it spread "peace on earth and goodwill The answer I heard through the headphones was resoundingly yes. but the vast amount of correspondence she subsequently received enabled her to present evidence for reform of the law which might otherwise never have emerged.

Both as a journalist and a politician, Eirene White was immensely active and earnest, although she rather lacked the sense of humour necessary to appreciate the failings of the two callings. While a backbencher she formed an interest in colonial policy, and in 1964 was appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Colonial Office before becoming Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in 1966. Tact was not her strong suit, and in 1966 she caused a minor diplomatic fracas with the Spanish Government when, after an official visit to Gibraltar, she said she would not holiday in a country "determined to bully them people of This observation certainly reflected Gibraltarian opinion, but distressed the Foreign Office, which was eager to reach a modus vivendi with the Spanish. Eirene White had beefter the Foreign Office for a year, Harold Wilson moved her nearer to home as Minister of State for Wales. She held the post until 1970, when she was created a life peer as Baroness White, of Rhymney, Monmouth.

She subsequently held a Government appointments. She was chairman of the Land Authority for Wales (1976- 80), deputy chairman Metrication Board (1972-76), and a member of the Royal Commission on Environment Pollution (1974-81). She was also chairman of Coleg Harlech (1974-84), a post her father had held, and a member of the British Waterways Board from 1974 to 1980. She was a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords from 1979 to 1989. Her husband died in 1968.

They were no children. at Alamein, Agheila and Mareth, supporting among others, the New Zealanders and the Free French. In October 1943 he commanded the battery in the landings at Salerno, Italy, and then organised Robforce. After returning to the regiment as second-in-command, he supported 9th Armoured Brigade at Cassino, in the Po Valley, and at Trieste. In 1945 he was posted to the British Army staff at Washington as 8th Army representative.

The next year he went to Germany as a battery commander and after attending the Staff College, Camberley, in 1947 he filled a series of staff appointments in Egypt and Iraq. 1956 he became GSO1 at then Warfare Joint School, and three years later was appointed Assistant Director, Public Relations in the Persian Gulf, Aden and East Africa. His final postings were as Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, in the Ministry of Defence, and Deputy to the Director of the TA. In retirement, Robinson worked for several years as registrar of the National House Building Council. Robbie Robinson's wife, whom he married in 1937, predeceased him; they had a daughter.

Robinson: tireless energy CHESS 19 Nh5 Rxg5 20 hxg5 Nd8 Hodgson back 21 Kc8 22 g6 Nxg6 23 Bxg6 fxg6 24 Ne8 Qd7 in reckoning 25 27 Rbel Qxg6 28 26 Re5 Qxf7 Ra6 Nxf7 29 Rh5 d4 30 Rh7 d3! By Malcolm Pein 31 Rxf7 d2 32 Ral Be4 33 g4 Bxc2 34 g5 Rc6 ALEXEI Barsov, of Tashkent, 35 Rf8 36 Kg2 b2 Uzbekistan, finally captured 37 Rh1 b1Q 0-1 the Grandmaster title when a draw against the Scottish champion, Analysis Jonathan Rowson, gave him his a) 29. Rxe6 Rxe6 30.Rxe6 b3 third and final grandmaster norm 31.cxb3 c2 32. Rel d4 and the at the York Vikings, top sec- white knight is too tion of the Chess Festival being far from the action. Black just played at the Lady Anne Middle- continues d3 and Kb8 and the ton Hotel, York. pawns triumph.

The ninth round draw also kept b) 31.cxd3 Rc6! 32.Rxf7 b3 33.Rf8 Barsov at the head of the event c2 34.Nd6+ Kc7 35.Nc4! Rxc4 a position he has held from the 36.dxc4 b2 start of player double- wins. round they Hillarp-Persson However, the British cham- Lady White (1982): held a marginal seat for 20 years her 21st birthday with a party given for her at Cliveden by Nancy Astor, a friend of her father's. Eirene Jones then spent a year in Heidelberg before working for the New York Public Library. Returning to England, she studied housing policies and the problems of the homeless in parts of Europe. On the outbreak of war she joined the Women's Voluntary Service and rapidly became Welsh Regional Secretary.

She was soon recruited by the Ministry of Labour to help with the training of workers in Wales, particularly women, for the war effort. In 1945 she resigned from the Civil Service to fight Flintshire for Labour, though without success. She turned instead to journalism, representing both the Manchester Evening News and the BBC at the House of Commons the latter as their Welsh parliamentary correspondent. In 1947 she became one of the first women lobby correspondents. "'Women of your qualifications and antecedents," she was informed by George Bernard Shaw, "do not grow on gooseberry bushes." A year later she married a fellow member of lobby, John Cameron White.

"We fell in love at Downing Street briefings," she said. In 1950 East Flint, which she held until retiring in 1970. Soon after becoming an MP, Eirene White introduced a Private Member's Bill making seven years' separation grounds for divorce. It received a second reading, but she withdrew it after receiving an undertaking from the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, that he would appoint a Royal Commission to report on all aspects of marriage and the divorce laws. Her Bill not only stirred the Government into action, pion, GM Julian Hodgson, joined Barsamon after more nice play saw off Sweden's Johnny Hector in the penultimate round.

The Best Game Prize for round nine must have been the easiest one to judge so far as Tiger Hillarp-Persson played quite beautifully to defeat the former World Junior champion, Emil Sutovsky, of Israel. The "Tiger" sacrificed a rook for a bishop to blunt his opponent's initiative and then gave up another bishop to create a menacing phalanx of pawns that stretched from the a5 square to d2. The pawns broke free and the Tiger made a new queen. York Vikings (round 9): Barsov draw Rowson; Hector 0-1 Hodgson; Sutovsky 0-1 Hillarp-Persson. Scores: 1-2, IM Barsov (Uzbekistan), GM Hodgson (England) 3, GM Hillarp-Persson (Sweden) 4-5, GM Rowson (Scotland), GM Sutovsky (Israel) 6, GM Hector (Sweden) 2.

Sutovsky Hillarp-Persson Vikings GM York (9) 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 c5 5 a3 6 bxc3 Ne7 7 0g4 Qc7 8 Bd3 cxd4 9 Ne2 dxc3 10 Qxg7 Rg8 11 Qxh7 Qxe5 12 h4 Qd6 13 Bg5 Nbc6 140-0 a6 15 Rabi b5 16 a4 b4 17 Ng3 Bb7 18 Rfel Kd7 8 2 8 6 5 2 8 A a Sutovsky Position after black played forcing the creation of three connected passed pawns. Hillarp-Persson 5. 2 VAR a Sutovsky Final position.