Anne, Duchess of Norfolk - Telegraph She was born Anne Mary Teresa Constable-Maxwell in London on August 30 1927, the eldest daughter of Wing-Commander Gerald Constable-Maxwell, a Knight of Malta and a Papal Chamberlain. He was descended from the Barons Herries, and she was therefore a distant cousin of the 16th Duke of Norfolk. Her mother, Carolyn, was American , and to escape the Blitz, Anne and her sisters were sent to the United States, spending most of the war years living with a much-loved aunt in New Jersey, where she was educated at a Sacred Heart convent school. From 1961 to 1963 Miles Fitzalan-Howard commanded 70 Brigade King's African Rifles in Kenya, and Anne launched the Maendeleo Club, a sewing club for African Army wives. Her husband later rose to the rank of major-general and commanded the 1st Division of the British Army of the Rhine, and on retiring from the Army in 1967 worked for the merchant bank Robert Fleming. Fitzalan-Howard succeeded his mother as the 12th Lord Beaumont in 1971; his father as the 4th Lord Howard of Glossop in 1972; and finally, in 1975, his cousin as the 17th Duke of Norfolk. His wife thus had to change her name three times in five years. Her involvement with the hospice movement began when a letter meant for the wife of the 16th Duke (Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk) was sent to her instead. It was from the nuns running St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, east London, who were seeking intervention to prevent the hospice falling into the hands of a developer. Anne took the misdirected letter as a sign, and offered to help; St Joseph's was saved. The hospice director, Sister Paula, asked the Duchess to help raise £1 million for a new training wing. Within 18 months the money had been found, and the Norfolk Wing was built. She then decided to start Help the Hospices. An enthusiastic amateur painter who favoured striking colours, the Duchess produced landscapes in acrylic of the Caribbean, which she and her husband visited every February. To raise funds for Help for Hospices, she created annual Nativity or snow scenes which she sold as Christmas cards; she also sold around 800 paintings in aid of the charity. Her garden at Bacres was an abiding passion; she had a particular predilection for orange flowers, and if a rose of that colour became available, she would be among the first to plant it. In 1977, to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee, she arranged an International Festival of Flowers and Music at Westminster Cathedral. Her husband died in 2002. They had two sons - Edward, now the 18th Duke of Norfolk, and Gerald - and three daughters: Tessa, who is married to the 5th Earl of Balfour; Marcia (the actress Marsha Fitzalan); and Carina, wife of the television personality Sir David Frost. Anne, Duchess of Norfolk, born August 30 1927, died April 8 2013