Mary Soames, the last surviving child of Winston Churchill, has died, it was announced today.
Lady Soames, who was 91, died peacefully at home yesterday evening, surrounded by her family, after a short illness. She was the youngest of the five children of the wartime British prime minister and his wife Clementine.
One of her sons, the Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, said: "She was a truly remarkable and extraordinary woman, who led a very distinguished life."
She worked for the Red Cross and the Women’s Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, with whom she served in London, Belgium and Germany, in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of junior commander (equivalent to captain). She also accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met with US president Harry S Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
She married the Conservative politician Christopher Soames (later Baron Soames) in 1947 and they had five children: Nicholas, Emma, Jeremy, Charlotte and Rupert.