Though the tradition of choosing godparents is widespread, Queen Elizabeth’s role at the head of the Church of England makes the tradition especially important in the royal family. Recently the family has also found ways to emphasize their personal relationships and passions, choosing honored friends or particularly important mentors. One of the earliest examples of that came when Prince Charles and Princess Diana chose Prince Harry’s six godparents and included Diana’s former roommate Carolyn Bartholomew and Lady Celia Vestey, a member of the queen’s inner circle. On November 28, Celia passed away “suddenly, but peacefully” at the age of 71, according to her family’s notice in the Telegraph. The Sun reports that Harry has contacted her children to share his condolences.
She was the wife of Sam, Lord Vestey, one of England’s richest businessmen, but her connection to the royals came through her love for horses, and from 1999 to 2018, Sam served as the Master of Horses for the royal household. In 1985, after Harry was born, Tina Brown reported that Celia was one of the few people who was friends with both Charles and Diana. Ultimately it was an apt choice; Celia was known for her good-spirited humor, and she led a life that straddled the paths that each one of Harry’s parents wanted to take. Celia’s sons attended Harry’s prep school, and according to the Daily Mail, the two stayed in touch throughout his life. She was a guest at his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle and also made an appearance at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 nuptials.
Celia’s parents, Major Guy Knight and his wife Hester, were both born to prominent families, and her father won a military cross for his bravery during World War II. Celia was born in 1949, and in the early 1950s, the family began to manage the farmland at Lockinge Manor. Celia’s sister, Henrietta Knight, writes in her memoir that their love for horses began early on. They both had their own ponies at a young age, and their mother began to breed Shetlands while they were still teenagers.
Celia first entered the royal fold because the Queen Mother was close friends with her parents and would come to dine at Lockinge every summer. When Henrietta became a professional trainer, she struck up a correspondence with the Queen Mother and was occasionally invited to spend weekends at Royal Lodge, her Windsor home, to attend lavish dinner parties. Celia never spoke publicly about her relationship to the Queen Mother, but in 1975, she was a part of the family’s procession at Royal Ascot. Though they wouldn’t meet until later, Sam was also a part of the royal pack that came together over their love for riding, hunting, and playing polo.
Celia trained as a nurse at Westminster Hospital and enjoyed living in London, but horse breeding was still her passion. In a 1981 BBC documentary, she was filmed with the horse she would let occasionally let roam inside her house. “I wouldn’t let just any horse inside,” she said, according to The Guardian. “He usually comes in once a week while we are having coffee.”
She was still a nurse when Robert Fellowes, a brother-in-law of Diana, introduced her to Sam. After Sam’s first marriage ended in divorce, his best friend Fellowes invited Celia to a dinner party, which was a success. In 1996, she told the Daily Mail that their first romantic moment took place at a dance held to celebrate Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981. “The Queen gave a dance before Prince Charles married Lady Di and I met Sam on the stairs going up to say ‘how do you do’ to the Queen. A regimental band was playing,” she said. “I was wearing some old, clapped-out long dress, nothing glamorous, but he danced with me all night.”
When Celia went to visit Sam at his house, Stowell Park, for the first time, she brought her favorite horse (also named Sam) along because she didn’t want to be separated from the horse for too long. “On Sunday we were in the car coming back from church and he asked me to marry him,” she said. “We actually courted, got engaged, and married in four months.” Though they would later attend some of the royal family’s most spectacular weddings, they opted for something much smaller themselves. Celia wore a somber black velvet gown to a simple ceremony at the Wantage Register Office, near her parents’ house.
After the wedding, they decided to combine their horse-breeding operations at Stowell, and Sam eventually became the head of the Cheltenham racecourse, which hosts an annual horse festival beloved by the royals. They saw success with their breeding operation, and Celia even sent a horse to compete for Britain at the Olympics. One year, a horse bred by Celia, owned by Sam, and trained by Henrietta won a competitive race with the Queen Mother watching along. “It was a truly family affair and a magic moment,” Sam told the Gloucestershire Echo in 2010.
The couple went on to have three children. In November 1995, Celia suffered a life-threatening hemorrhagic stroke that left her with weakness on her left side and temporarily slurred speech. The next spring, she praised Sam for his support. “A friend of ours said Sam never ever let it enter his mind that he might lose me, though he knew I was incredibly ill and living on a knife edge,” she said. “It has made me realize how much he loves me and I became fantastically possessive. I was terrified to let him out of my sight. I couldn’t understand why I was like that because I’m not a possessive person.”
They eventually became close to the queen and last year, Sam became one of her permanent Lords-in-Waiting. Over the last few years, they were occasional weekend guests at Windsor and in 2016, a source told the Daily Mail that the queen was “fond” of Celia’s “lively company.”