Yesterday marked the 60th Anniversary of the Death of Helen, the 8th Duchess of Northumberland, who passed away in 1965! The Mistress of the Robes to the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Northumberland had the magnificent Northumberland Strawberry Leaf Coronet snatched by thieves after she retrieved it from Garrards ahead of a State Banquet in 1963!

Strawberry Leaf Coronet | Foliate Tiara | Diamond Tiara

Made of diamonds from a ceremonial sword present by King George IV to the 3rd Duke Northumberland, the Strawberry Leaf Coronet featured large strawberry leaf motifs rising from a diamond base, and was in the style of a Ducal Coronet.

A Diamond strawberry leaf tiara. The large centre stone came from a State sword which was presented in 1825 to the 3rd Duke of Northumberland by George IV who he represented at the Coronation of Charles X of France in 1825.

The Strawberry Leaf Coronet was notably worn by Helen Percy, the 8th Duchess of Northumberland, who was the Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.

Later that same year, the Duchess of Northumberland was depicted wearing the Strawberry Leaf Coronet by Phillip de László at Syon House, one of the family residences in the outskirts of London.

Standing full-length at Syon House in full regalia, as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth at the Coronation in 1937, wearing the family jewels: a collet rivière with a diamond cross as a pendant, two emerald and diamond brooches on her bodice and a strawberry leaf tiara set with diamonds from the ceremonial sword given to the 3rd Duke of Northumberland by George IV, drop earrings; a vase of lilies on a table beside her to the left; a gilt chair with a coronet on the seat to the right and two fluted columns and a gilt-framed door behind

The artist was keen to paint an unusual picture, not in his studio, “in the Zoffany style – a full-length portrait in reduced style.” He described the Duchess’s portrait to Lady Desborough as being similar to his small full-length portrait of Lord Londonderry executed in 1924, also painted in the sitter’s environment. The artist painted the Duchess at Syon House, her home just outside London, as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth at the Coronation on 12 May 1937, her cloak of crimson velvet and ermine incorporating the Percy Lion and Fetterlock, the Gordon Ivy Leaf and the Richmond Rose, all worked in gold thread.

In a letter to László Siklóssy, a Hungarian journalist and friend who was going to publish an article about de László, he explained: “The room in which I painted her is pure and genuine Adams [sic] (1728-1792) I took the coronet, which all the Peers and Peereses [sic] wore immediately the King and Queen were crowned, from her head and placed it on a chair. I thought it would be too heavy and would interfere with the beauty of her head.” In a letter sent from the country house he rented to rest in Sussex, de László wrote to an acquaintance that the picture “was difficult to compose it in such a way that the gorgeous dress and jewels did not eclipse the main thing – the actual portrait.”

The Duchess of Northumberland notably wore the Strawberry Leaf Coronet  for the Royal Visit to Paris in 1938, the French State Visit to Britain in 1939,  a Gala Performance in 1950, and the Danish State Visit to Britain in 1951 among many other occasions, alternating with her Diamond Tiara, while the Foliate Tiara was worn by her daughter-in-law, the 9th Duchess.

The presence of foreign royalty or heads of state on official visits has also consistently been honoured by full dress court ceremonies and entertainments, right up to this day. In 1950, when Monsieur Auriol the President of France and his wife attended a ballet gala at Covent Garden, although the French ladies were most beautifully dressed in haute couture they did not wear jewels and as a result it was the bejewelled English peeresses who caught the eye. Two of them wore their old family jewels with particular distinction: the Mistress of the Robes, Helen Duchess of Northumberland was magnificent in tall strawberry leaf crown, long earrings, great diamond riviereé and pearls with diamond clasp.

The Strawberry Leaf Coronet continued to be worn by the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland when she served as the Mistress of the Robes to the Queen Mother at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, for the Coronation Gala at Covent Garden in 1953, the Portuguese State Visit to Britain in 1955, the German State Visit to Britain in 1958, and the Iranian State Visit to Britain in 1959 among others.

In 1959, the Northumberland Strawberry Leaf Coronet was among the notable jewels loaned to the ‘Ageless Diamond’ Exhibit at Christie’s, along with Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara, The Cullinan Diamonds, the Queen’s South African Diamonds, the Londonderry Tiara and Londonderry Diamond Stomacher, the Sutherland Diamond Rivière and the Spencer Diamond Rivière.

The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland was also seen wearing the Strawberry Leaf Coronet during the French State Visit to Britain in 1960 and for a Banquet at Nepalese Embassy in 1960, with a final appearance at a Gala Performance during the Belgian State Visit in 1963.

In July 1963, the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland was retrieving her Jewellery from Garrards for the Greek State Visit to Britain, when her car was ambushed and the Northumberland Strawberry Leaf Coronet snatched by thieves, which was dramatically described:

A gang of thugs ambushed the 75-year-old Dowager Duchess of Northumberland last night and robbed her of £125,000 worth of jewels. She sat screaming in her car outside her London home as five thieves ran off with her diamond tiara, pearl necklace and other jewellery, the Daily Express said.

After the robbery, the Queen Mother, a friend of the Duchess, called to console her. The Duchess had planned to wear the jewellery to the State banquet given by King Paul and Queen Frederika of Greece in London last night. However, she was so upset by the robbery she could not attend the banquet, the Daily Express said. One of the stolen pieces was a jewelled badge the Queen Mother had given her many years ago.

The Duchess and her secretary had driven to Garrards, a London jewellers, to collect the gems ready for the banquet. With them were a security man and the chauffeur, the newspaper reported. The security man accompanied the Duchess into the jewellers and about four minutes later they came out with two boxes wrapped in brown paper.

Ambushed as they drove up to the Duchess’s home, a van swerved across the road in front of them. The chauffeur, Stanley Warsop, 55, said, “It swerved in front of me just before I stopped. “A big coloured man wea ing a brown trilby bashed in my window, and I ducked. “He tried to cosh me, but only hit my back. Four white men rushed round the other side of the car and grabbed the two boxes. “But the security man rushed after them and got one box back. “The Duchess and he[r] secretary were screaming in the back.

The Daily Express said the box the security man re- covered contained jewels worth about £25,000. The men escaped with the other box in a grey Jaguar car which had been parked nearby. The Guardian quoted the Duchess’s daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, as saying her mother was “quite all right, but will be having an early night — it was quite a shock for her.”

The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland did not participate in another State Visit before she retired as Mistress of the Robes the following year, passing away a year later at Alnwick. The Duchess of Devonshire wrote about the incident:

Even though Helen, Duchess of Northumberland, once had her tiara snatched off her head as she was leaving their house in Easton Square, we did not think of being mugged (the word did not exist).

I remember going to…an entertainment in London in the early 1960’s, by myself as Andrew had an engagement elsewhere. With…confidence I wore the big tiara…When I ran out of partners and wanted to go home, I went out to look for a taxi. It never occurred to me that it might not be a good idea to stand alone in the street, long after midnight, with a load of diamonds around my neck and 1,900 more glittering above my head.”

Strawberry Leaf Coronet | Foliate Tiara | Diamond Tiara

Strawberry Leaf Coronet