'Debo' - Mitford, Cavendish, Devonshire duchess, housewife 1920-2014

Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s greatest treasure houses, Chatsworth. With responsibility for Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey as well, no wonder her passport stated her profession as ‘housewife’. Along the way, she became a best-selling author and sell-out speaker, champion of the countryside, its skills, traditions, livelihoods and food, trustee and patron of numerous charities, businesses and good causes, and the most famous poultry keeper in the country. She met Hitler and Churchill, was a trusted confidant of the Prince of Wales, played her part as the steady heart of the Mitford sisters’ melodrama and was friends with a dazzling array of some of the brightest and most fascinating of her contemporaries. Debo had a lasting impact not just on Chatsworth but on everything she touched and everyone she met; I was lucky enough to work for and with her over more than 20 years and in this lecture I pay tribute to an astonishing life.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Simon Seligman

Having grown up wanting to be an architect, Simon studied art and architectural history at Warwick University, which included a compulsory term living in Venice, from which he is still recovering! For 19 years until 2010, he worked at the great treasure house of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, in a variety of roles, starting with a summer job cleaning lavatories and car parking, and ending as Head of Communications. In that time he lectured extensively about Chatsworth, the Devonshire Collection and associated topics, throughout the UK and on several US tours, and he continues to lecture on a growing range of cultural topics. Since then he has fulfilled another passion by training as a Life Coach, working with people one-to-one to support their life and career choices, and he also works part time for John Ruskin’s charity the Guild of St George. For more than 30 years he has lived with his family in the heart of Derbyshire's beautiful Peak District.