CLARISSA Eden has died at the age of 101 - more than four decades after her husband, former Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
The Countess of Avon - who was also the niece of wartime hero Winston Churchill - celebrated her centenary during lockdown and sadly passed away on November 15.
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Clarissa Eden, the widow of the former PM, has died Credit: Getty 3
Sir Anthony Eden and Clarissa Eden married in 1952 Credit: Rex
Anne Clarissa Churchill - always called Clarissa - was born on June 28 1920, and was the only daughter of Major John Strange Churchill, Sir Winston’s younger brother.
As the widow of Anthony Eden, who was in office from 1955 to 1957, she was the oldest former spouse of a Prime Minister since Mary Wilson passed away.
Reviewing her memoirs, her old friend Raymond Carr, described her as “an extraordinary woman, fiercely independent since childhood”.
Clarissa spent her early years in London, attended a boarding school, but left early without any formal qualifications because she was “bored”.
During the war, she spent much of her time at Chequers with her uncle Winston.
She worked first for the Ministry of Information on Britansky Soyuznik, an English-language propaganda newspaper published in Russia, and later in a basement of the Foreign Office decoding messages.
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She infamously said that her uncle Winston wasn't a very good painter - and that he was a "failure" most of his life.
In an interview three years ago, Clarissa said: "My uncle didn't have a good eye.
"He did painting; they were quite nice. But he wasn't an aesthete."
The Countess of Avon said she remembered a very different Churchill to the one in history books, adding: "I always knew him as a great man who hadn't been appreciated.
"Most of my life he was a failure. He was out of a job, out of work and not right in anything he believed in."
Clarissa announced her engagement to Anthony Eden when he was in his third term as Foreign Secretary - and they got married in 1952.
FAREWELL COUNTESS
At the time, her aunt Clementine Churchill, wife of Winston, said that Clarissa was "too independent" to make a suitable wife for a politician.
She was said to have retained her "legendary beauty" to the day she marked her 100th birthday - but she was unable to celebrate properly because of the pandemic.
Tributes have poured in for the Countess, with one well-wisher saying: "RIP Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon. Wife of Anthony Eden, niece of Winston Churchill.
"She died today, aged 101, a full 44 years after her late husband, having outlived five of her successors as prime ministerial spouses."
Another wrote: "Sad to hear of the death of Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon at the age of 101.
"She lived long enough to see both the Suez Canal flow through her drawing room in 1956 and the Ever Given get stuck in that same conduit some 65 years later. A fine innings."
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine pose with Anthony and Clarissa Eden Credit: Getty
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