Myra Butter

Myra, Lady Butter (born Myra Alice Wernher; 18 March 1925 – 29 July 2022) was a British aristocrat and thoroughbred racehorse owner. Butter was born Myra Alice Wernher on 18 March 1925 in Edinburgh. She was the third child and younger daughter of Harold Wernher and Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby, who was known in the United Kingdom as "Lady Zia Wernher". Her father was the second son of Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt, a German-born randlord, and Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz, an heiress who was of part Polish Jewish descent. Her mother was the morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and Countess Sophie Nikolaievna of Merenberg, a descendant of Abram Petrovich Hannibal and Alexander Pushkin. She had two older siblings; George Michael Alexander Wernher (1918–1942) and Georgina, Lady Kennard (1919–2011). She was baptized on 4 June 1925 at Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone. Her godparents included the Crown Princess of Sweden (for whom her aunt, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, stood proxy). The family resided at Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire, Thorpe Lubenham Hall in Leicestershire, Someries House in Regent's Park and Downie Park in Angus, Scotland. Myra and her siblings were childhood friends of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, whose legal guardian was their uncle, the Marquess of Milford Haven. She was a member of 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides which was formed in 1937 for Princess Elizabeth. The National Portrait Gallery holds several photographic portraits of the Wernher family, taken by Bassano Ltd in 1937. During World War II, she volunteered as a nurse with the Order of Saint John at the Market Harborough and District Hospital. Her brother was killed in action while serving with the 17th/21st Lancers on the Tunisian campaign. On 5 March 1946, Myra married Major David Henry Butter (son of Colonel Charles Adrian Butter), of the Scots Guards, at St Margaret's Church, Westminster.