De Torbi, Anastasia Mikhailovna

Anastasia Mikhailovna (they called her in English manner - Zia) was born in Wiesbaden (like her brother - Mikhail ), where her parents lived at that time: for an unequal marriage with the Countess Sofia Merenberg, Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich was banned from entering Russia. Later, the family moved to England.

On September 1, 1917, King George V equated Lady Zia with a special decree, as the eldest daughter of Countess de Torby and Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, in all civil rights with the daughters of English peers.

During the Second World War , the estate of Luton-Hu, which belonged to her husband, was one of the headquarters of the acting British army, and Zia herself headed the Emergency Medical Service for Soldiers. Her son, the captain of the English Lancers Regiment, George Michael Alexander Werner, on December 4, 1942, was killed in battle.
In 1946, Anastasia Mikhailovna was awarded the Order of the British Empire of the 4th degree, and ten years later - the Order of the British Empire of the 2nd (officer) degree.

Anastasia Mikhailovna and Harold Werner were great lovers and connoisseurs of race horses. They owned the famous horse Brown Jack, repeatedly received the first prizes for world records. Spouses supported leaps in large sums of money.

In April 1961, Lady Zia Werner came to the Soviet Union . In Leningrad, she visited the All-Union Museum of A.S. Pushkin, which was then located in the Winter Palace , the museum-apartment of the poet on the Moika , the place of a duel near the Black River .

December 7, 1977 Anastasia Mikhailovna died.

On July 4 (17), 1917, Zia de Torby married the baronet Harold Augustus Werner ( 1893 - 1973 ), the second son of diamond magnate Julius Werner, well-known in England. The marriage of the bride and groom, a major of the British royal fleet, took place in the court church of St. James Palace .

Later, in 1944 , Harold Werner was promoted to Major General and was instrumental in coordinating the logistics of Operation Overlord. A successful businessman, he was for a long time the chairman of the board of the Electrolux and Plessis Electronics companies.

• George Michael Alexander ( August 22, 1918 - December 4, 1942 );
• Georgina (* October 17, 1919 - April 28, 2011) - from October 10, 1944 the wife of Harold Pedro Joseph Philips (1909–1980), since 1992 - Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard (1915–1999);
  • Alexandra Anastasia (Sasha) Phillips (1946–2018) - from 1966 the consort of James of Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn (* 1934);
  • Nicholas Harold Phillips (1947–1991) - married in 1975 to Countess Lucia Maria Chernin (* 1945);
  • Fiona Mercedes Phillips (* 1951) - since 1971 the wife of James Comin Amherst Burnet of Liz (* 1941);
  • Marita Georgina Philips (* 1954) - since 1982, the spouse of Randal Stafford Crawley (Crawley) (1950-1988);
  • Natalia Eyesha Phillips (* 1959) - Since 1978, the wife of Gerald Cavendish Grossvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster (1951—2016).

• Mayra Alice (* March 8, 1925 ) - the spouse from November 5, 1946 to David Henry Butter (* 1920 (? 1924)).
  • Sandra Elizabeth Zia Butter (* 1948 ) - since 1983 the spouse of William David Morrison (* 1940);
  • Marilyn Deyvina Butter (* 1950 ) - since 1973 the spouse of Lord James Hubert Ramsey (Ramsey) (* 1948);
  • Rose Georgiana Butter (* 1952 ) - since 1988 the wife of Alexander Peter (Alexander Georgievich) Golitsyn (* 1945);
  • Georgina Marguerite Butter (* 1956 ) - since 1982, the spouse of Peter Stephen Leslie Pezhashevich (* 1954);
  • Charles Harold Alexander Butter (* 1960 ) - Since 2006, married to Agnieszka Shuluk.

Zia Werner lived most of her life at Luton H ( Luton Hoo ) in Bedfordshire, near London. This estate was acquired in 1903 by Sir Julius Werner ( 1850 - 1912 ), the father-in-law of Zia. In the castle-museum, consisting of dozens of halls, collected enormous artistic values. In the art gallery there are paintings by Rubens, Bermejo, Holbein Sr., Italian masters of the 15th — 16th — centuries. The richest collections of jewelry and bronze, Italian Renaissance majolica, German silver.

In 1945 , after the death of his mother, he was inherited by Sir Harold. Subsequently, to the rarities of the castle, Zia joined her collection of jewelry by Gustav (1815–1893) and Peter Karl (1846–1920) to Faberge, inherited from her parents.

In 1973, after the death of Sir Harold, his widow became the owner of the estate. Her efforts prepared an exposition of two “Russian rooms” - the only one of its kind in the museum of Russian culture in England. In the first room there are a lot of materials dedicated to Pushkin. Among them is a portrait of the poet by Eugene Faberge, made in 1931 by order of Lady Zia. On the opposite wall is a portrait of Nicholas I.

The exposition contains a list of Pushkin's ode "Liberty", made by an unknown person; a copy of Natalya Ivanovna Frizengoff's pencil drawing "The Children of Pushkin" (1841); gold medals cast in honor of Pushkin in 1899 and in 1937 .

The court dress of the Russian work, in which Sofia Nikolaevna de Torbi was presented to Queen Victoria in 1897, was also displayed here. In the center of the hall is a copy of the Bronze Horseman, half a meter high, cast in 1845 in England from silver.

The second “Russian Room” contains copies of famous portraits of Pushkin and Natalya Nikolaevna , a marble bust and photographs of their youngest daughter, N. A. Merenberg , photographs of the granddaughters of the poet Sophia de Torby and Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, pictures of the current British descendants of Pushkin.

Members of the royal families of many European states often visited the luxurious palace. In 1950, the castle museum was opened to the public.

In the 1990s, famous four films “ Four Weddings and a Funeral ” and “ Eyes Wide Shut ” were shot on the estate.

After the crisis of 1991 and the suicide of its new owner Nicholas Phillips (1947–1991), the grandson of Lady Zia, the estate was sold to an unknown person. Then the art collection was sold out.

• Grigoryan V. G. Romanovs. Biographical directory. - M.: AST, 2007.
• Pchelov E.V. Romanovs. The history of the dynasty. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2004.
• Rusakov V.M. Stories about the descendants of A.S. Pushkin. - SPb.: Lenizdat, 1992.

• Distant close. To Pushkin through Kenwood, Pitlochry, and Ulster (Pushkin's foreign descendants)