The Lady Davina Elizabeth Alice Benedikte Windsor was born on November 19, 1977 at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, the same hospital where Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince George of Cambridge, and Princess Charlotte of Cambridge were born. Lady Davina’s father is Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester who is a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and a grandson of King George V. Her mother was born Birgitte Eva Henriksen in Odense, Denmark and took her mother’s name, van Deurs, when her parents separated. Lady Davina has two siblings: an older brother Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster and a younger sister Lady Rose (Windsor) Gilman. She attended Kensington Preparatory School in the Notting Hill section of London and then St. George’s School in Ascot near Windsor Castle. Lady Davina graduated the University of the West of England with a degree in media studies.
Gary Christie Lewis was born on August 15, 1970 in Gisborne, New Zealand. He is the son of Larry Lewis, a champion sheep shearer in the 1980s, and Vikki Smiler who worked as a maid. Gary is a Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. His uncle is the prominent Maori author Witi Ihimaera who wrote The Whale Rider which became a film of the same name. Gary grew up on the East Cape of New Zealand, one of New Zealand’s poorest areas where Maoris make up 70% of the population and the unemployment rate is high. He attended the village school in the Maori settlement of Te Wharau before attending Lytton High School in Gisbourne. He is a carpenter who runs a property renovation business and a surfing enthusiast, and has a son from a previous relationship, Ari who was born in 1992.
Lady Davina and Gary’s engagement was announced in the Court Circular of March 26. 2004: “The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester are delighted to announce the engagement of their daughter, The Lady Davina Windsor, to be married to Mr Gary Lewis, son of Mr Larry Lewis and Mrs Vikki Carr.” Gary’s grandfather Tom Smiler remarked, “All I know is he is in England somewhere with a girl and she is related to the Queen or something like that. It is wonderful.”
The wedding was a private affair held in the Chapel Royal at Kensington Palace, where Lady Davina grew up, and the birthplace of her great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Except for the bride’s immediate family, no members of the royal family attended, but one of the guests was Captain Mark Phillips, former husband of Princess Anne. Thirty-six members of the groom’s family came from New Zealand to attend the wedding. The bride’s 102 year old grandmother Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, was too infirm to attend the wedding. She died later in the same year.
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