On 17 February 1920, he was married to the Hon. Alexandra Mary Cadogan (1900–1961) at a ceremony at
St Margaret's Church in
London attended by
King George V and
Queen Mary. As a wedding gift, his maternal grandfather gave him a house in London. Together, they had two sons and three daughters: • Lady Sarah Consuelo Spencer-Churchill (1921–2000), who married
Edwin Fariman Russell (1914–2001) in
Westminster in 1943. They divorced in
Reno, Nevada in 1966 and she married Guillermo “Guy” Burgos Ossa the same year. They divorced in 1967 in
Mexico and she married thirdly to Theo Roubanis in
Philadelphia in 1967. • Lady Caroline Spencer-Churchill (1923–1992), who married Major Charles Huguenot Waterhouse (1918–2007) of Middleton Hall,
Middleton-by-Youlgreave in
Woodstock, Oxfordshire in 1946. •
John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough (1926–2014), who married four times. •
Lady Rosemary Mildred Spencer-Churchill (b. 1929); a
lady in waiting to
Queen Elizabeth II, she married Charles Robert Muir (d. 1972) at
Oxford in 1953. • Lord Charles George William Colin Spencer-Churchill (1940–2016), who married Gillian
Spreckels Fuller (b. 1946), a great-granddaughter of California industrialist and financier
John D. Spreckels, in 1965. They divorced in 1968 and in 1970, he married Elizabeth Jane Wyndham (b. 1948), a great-niece of the interior decorator
Nancy Lancaster.
Residences As a wedding present, Lord Blandford's mother
Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough transferred the lease of her London home at No. 1
Portman Square to him. Lord and Lady Blandford continued to maintain 1 Portman Square as their London home until May 1928, when they took a new lease of No. 27
Hill Street, Mayfair from the Grosvenor Estate. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Lord and Lady Blandford also maintained a country residence at
Lowesby Hall in Leicestershire. Following the death Lord Blandford's father, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, in June 1934, Blandford succeeded as the 10th Duke of Marlborough and inherited the family's ancestral Oxfordshire seat
Blenheim Palace. The new Duke and Duchess moved into Blenheim, and Lowesby Hall was sold to
Sir Edmund Keith Nuttall, 2nd Baronet. The lease of 27 Hill Street was sold in October 1936, and in November of the same year, the Duke purchased the Crown Lease of a large, standalone London mansion at No. 11
Kensington Palace Gardens from
Sir Malcolm Perks, 2nd Bt. 11 Kensington Palace Gardens remained as the family's the London residence until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. During the War the house was requisitioned by the British Army. The Duke later sold his lease of 11 Kensington Palace Gardens to the French Government in September 1946 for £25,000, and the house became the
Official Residence of the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Second marriage Six weeks before his death, on 26 January 1972, the Duke married his second wife,
(Frances) Laura (née Charteris) Canfield (1915–1990), the widow of the American publishing heir
Michael Temple Canfield (whose first wife had been
Caroline Lee Bouvier, the sister of
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis). Laura Canfield was the second daughter of the Hon. Guy Lawrence Charteris (the second son of
Hugo Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss and Lady Frances Lucy Tennant). Laura's older sister, Ann Geraldine Mary Charteris, was married to the novelist
Ian Fleming. Laura herself was previously married to and divorced from
Walter Long, 2nd Viscount Long and
William Ward, 3rd Earl of Dudley. The Duke died at a hospital in London on 11 March 1972, and was succeeded by his son
John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford. He and his first wife are buried in the churchyard of
St Martin's Church, Bladon.
Descendants Through his eldest daughter, Lady Sarah (who inherited the bulk of his mother's estate upon her death in 1965), he was a grandfather of four: Serena Mary Churchill Russell (b. 1944) (who married
Neil Balfour), Consuelo Sarah Russell (b. 1946), Alexandra Brenda Russell (b. 1949), and Jacqueline Russell (b. 1958). Through his second daughter, Lady Caroline, he was a grandfather of three: Michael Thomas Waterhouse (b. 1949), Elizabeth Ann Waterhouse (b. 1951) (who married
Sir Richard Gervase Beckett), and David Charles Waterhouse (b. 1956). Through his third daughter
Lady Rosemary, he was a grandfather of three: Alexander Pepys Muir (b. 1954) (a godson of
Princess Margaret), Simon Huntly Muir (b. 1959), and Mary Arabella Muir (b. 1962). Through his youngest son, Lord Charles, he was a grandfather of three: Rupert John Harold Mark Spencer-Churchill (b. 1971), Dominic Albert Charles Spencer-Churchill (b. 1979), and Alexander David Spencer-Churchill (b. 1983). == References ==