Countess Gallery

Scene from Mozarts opera The Marriage of Figaro. (Le Nozze di Figaro), comic opera

Scene from Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. (Le Nozze di Figaro), comic opera (opera buffa) with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838) after Beaumarchais, first performed on l May 1786 at the Burgtheater, Vienna. Susanna, maid to Countess Almaviva telling the page Cherubino to leave when they hear voices approaching. Instead he will hide in the chair, covered by a drape, only to be exposed by the Count. From A Day With Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by May Byron. (London, c1914)

© Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group

Prince Philip of Greece & Milford Havens at Maidenhead

Celebrities at the Maidenhead Fishery Club in 1931. From left, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, formerly Countess Nada Torby, daughter of Grand Duke Michael of Russia, her daughter, Lady Tatiana Mountbatten, the Marquess of Milford Haven (formerly Prince George of Battenberg), Prince Philip of Greece (now Duke of Edinburgh), the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, formerly Princess Victoria of Hesse (Princess Louis of Battenberg), daughter of Princess Alice and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. On the right is the Count de Torby, Nada's brother Michael. Prince Philip would regularly spend school holidays with the Milford Havens - George was his uncle on his mother's side and the dowager Marchioness his grandmother. Date: 1931

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Grand Duke Michael of Russia and his family

Grand Duke Michael of Russia (1861-1929), son of the Grand Duke Michael Nicholovitch (grand-uncle of Tsar Nicholas II) first cousin of the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Grand Duchess Marie of Russia). He married morganatically Countess Torby and lived in Keele Hall, Staffordshire. During the first half of the Great War he lived at Kenwood House in Hampstead and was a prominent figure in London society. Pictured here with his wife and two of his children. From the date of the picture this is likely to be, on the right, Nadejda (Nada) Mikhailovna Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (28 March 1896 22 January 1963) and his youngest child and only son, Count Michael de Torby. Date: 1903

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans