Brief Profile

Marion Crawford grew up in Dunfermline and trained as a teacher at Moray House College. After graduation in 1931, she obtained work as a governess with titled families locally and thus met the Duke and Duchess of York who employed her as governess for their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose. After the Duke of York became king, “Crawfie” remained in her post. She tried to make the princesses more aware of the world by taking them out on public transport and starting up Brownies and Guides at the palace. She remained in royal employment until 1947.
The royal family broke off all contact with her in 1949, after she published her memoirs, which included stories about the little princesses. There had been a lot of pressure on her from the “Ladies Home Journal” whose readers were avid for her reminiscences and it is possible that she thought she had had permission from the palace. Neither the princesses, nor the queen, ever spoke to her again, although she was living near Balmoral.

Her husband,George Buthlay, whom she had married at the end of the war,died in 1977, but Crawfie lived on, suffering from depression, and twice attempting suicide, until 1988.

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