Nicolette Powell

Nicolette Elaine Katherine Powell (née Harrison) was an English aristocrat and debutante, the first wife of the 9th Marquess of Londonderry, and later the wife of the musician Georgie Fame.  She was born in 1941, the daughter of the stockbroker Michael Harrison and his wife, the former Maria Madeleine Benita von Koskull, a Latvian baroness.  Following in her mother's footsteps, she was presented to the Queen as a debutante in 1958, the year this practice ended.  On May 16th, 1958, Nicolette married Alexander Vane-Tempest-Stewart at her parents' home of Netherhampton, and subsequently became known as the Most Honourable Nicolette Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the Marchioness of Londonderry.  The couple made their home at Wynyard Hall, and quickly had two daughters: Lady Sophia Frances Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, born on February 23rd, 1959; and Lady Cosima Maria Gabriella Vane-Tempest-Stewart, born on December 25th, 1961.  In 1965, Nicolette's father died, and it was around this time that she began a relationship with the singer Georgie Fame (real name: Clive Powell).  She gave birth to a son - James Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh - in 1969.  In 1971, it was discovered that the father of her son was Georgie Fame, resulting in Powell's husband divorcing her, causing significant unwanted publicity.  Powell's daughter Cosima later revealed that her own biological father may have actually been Robin Douglas-Home (nephew of the former Prime Minister, Alec), who committed suicide in 1968.  On February 25th, 1972, Nicolette married Georgie Fame at Marylebone Registry Office, and gave birth to a second son, James Michael, in 1973.  Nicolette Powell (or "Nico", as she was known) and her new husband lived quietly, out of the public eye, with Powell enjoying her role as wife and mother.  However, as her children achieved independence and left home, she became increasingly depressed, feeling, as her husband said: "...redundant because all her children had grown up and no longer needed her constant attention."  In addition, her elderly mother's mental faculties began to decline.  On Friday the 13th of August, 1993, Nicolette Powell parked her car near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England.  After handing a note and her car keys to her two daughters, who were admiring the view, Powell plunged 250 feet to her death from the central span of the bridge.  Her suicide note said that she saw "no purpose in life" now that her children had grown up and left home.   A small group of mourners attended a brief memorial service for her in the parish church of St. Andrew in the village of Stoke Trister near Wincanton in Somerset, followed by a private cremation ceremony in Salisbury. Nicolette Powell was 52 years old.