Susan Barrantes
| Susan Barrantes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Susan Mary Wright 9 June 1937 Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, England, UK |
| Died | 19 September 1998 (aged 61) Tres Lomas, Argentina |
| Spouse | Ronald Ferguson (1956–1974) Hector Barrantes (1975–1990) |
| Children | Mrs. Jane Louisa Luedecke (b. 1957) Sarah Ferguson (b. 1959) |
Susan Barrantes (born 9 June 1937, Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, England, UK – died 19 September 1998, Tres Lomas, Argentina) was an English aristocrat related to the House of Stuart and the mother of Sarah, Duchess of York, and the maternal grandmother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York.
She was born Susan Mary Wright in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of FitzHerbert Wright and the Honourable Doreen Wingfield. Her maternal grandfather was Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt. Susan was the youngest of four children. She had two elder sisters, Brigid and Davina, and an older brother, Bryan. Brigid married Julian Salmond who was the son of Marshall of the Royal Air Force Sir John Salmond and the Hon. Monica Grenfell. Davina married firstly Sir Richard Boughey, 10th Bt and secondly Spencer Loch, 4th Baron Loch. Her brother rose to the rank of Major in the Blues and Royals.
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[edit] Childhood
The Wright family can be traced back to John Wright alias Camplyon of Stowmarket who made his will in 1557. His first son, Capt. John Wright, was imprisoned in Newark Castle for eight years for his attachment to the Parliamentary cause. He later acquired estates in Nottinghamshire and Suffolk. Captain Wright's grandson, Ichabod, was a banker who owned estates in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. He established Wright's Bank. His great-grandson Samuel Wright of Gunthorpe married a daughter of Lord Coventry. Samuel's brother John of Langar and Lenton Hall was a banker and principal proprietor of the Butterly Works. His granddaughter became the wife of the Earl of Buckinghamshire[disambiguation needed 
].
She completed school and for a short time attended secretarial college. During the debutante season of 1954 Susan Wright was presented to the Queen.[citation needed]
[edit] Marriage
She met Lieutenant Ronald Ferguson. On 17 January 1956 at the high society church St Margaret's, Westminster, she married Major Ronald Ivor Ferguson (1931–2003), who later played polo with Prince Philip and became Prince Charles's Polo Manager. Ronald and Susan had two daughters: Jane Louisa, born on 26 August 1957, and Sarah Margaret, later the Duchess of York, born on 15 October 1959.
[edit] Divorce
She left her family in 1972 to move to Argentina with professional polo player Hector Barrantes. It caused quite a stir in society circles and she was subsequently branded a "bolter". There was never any question of her daughters being allowed to go to Argentina; they were raised by their father Ronald back in England with the help of their extended family. Susan and Ronald Ferguson divorced in 1974. In 1975 she married Barrantes.[citation needed]
[edit] Argentina
Susan and her second husband Hector Barrantes moved to the ranch-mannor "El Pucara" in Tres Lomas, Argentina. Based on her writings and filmographic work, she recorded that aside from the birth of her two daughters, her life in Argentina was the happiest time of her life personally and professionally, since she had the chance to explore and develop a great documentary film career. Her two passions, polo and film, were combined in a new profession. In addition, she assisted her husband's business of breeding polo ponies and cattle until his death from cancer in 1990. Widowhood brought a new chapter to her life, along with some financial difficulties for Susan Barrantes and the global economy. She decided to start fresh once again, and relocated to a large flat in Recoleta-Palermo borough of Buenos Aires and sold more than half the farm to the polo-playing Australian media magnate Kerry Packer and began commuting to Buenos Aires for work. In the 1990s, she set up a television production company there, making films about horses.[citation needed] This last proyect became her dearest legacy of her professional life.
[edit] Personal life
Susan remained firm friends with Prince Charles. Shortly before the automobile accident that took her life, Barrantes authored a book titled POLO with the foreword written by the Prince of Wales.
[edit] Death
On 19 September 1998, while leaving to purchase steak from the ranch where she kept ponies, the Rover 75 she was driving collided with a Renault catering truck on a two-lane highway in flat countryside. The driver of the truck suffered a broken ankle, but Barrantes was decapitated and killed, age 61.
Susan Barrantes is buried beside her second husband in a vault beneath her home, next to a polo field on the "El Pucara" estate in Tres Lomas, Argentina.[1][2] Her death came less than three weeks after the first anniversary of the death of her daughter's former sister-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash. Susan Barrantes and her daughter Sarah both attended Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Fergie mourns mum", BBC News, 22 September 1998 Retrieved on 24 June 2009.
- ^ Entry at Find-a-Grave website
- ^ [1]
