Ronald Ferguson Ronald Ferguson Major Ronald Ivor Ferguson (10 October 1931 – 16 March 2003) was the father of Sarah, Duchess of York, former wife to the Duke of York. He was the maternal grandfather of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York. Major Ferguson was polo manager, initially to the Duke of Edinburgh and later, for many years, to the Prince of Wales. Ferguson was the son of Colonel Andrew Henry Ferguson (1899–1966) and his wife Marian Louisa Montagu Douglas Scott (1908–1996), a first cousin of Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, who became (after her wedding to Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester)
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough religion, a subject she rarely mentioned, although at their last fraught interview she did warn Anne that she risked God's vengeance for her unreasoning cruelty to Sarah. The queen did not want this difference to come between them; but Sarah, always thinking of her husband, wanted Anne to give more support to the Whigs, which she was not prepared to do. Sarah was called to Cambridge in 1703, where her only surviving son, John, Marquess of Blandford, was taken ill with smallpox. The Duke of Marlborough was recalled from the war and was at his bedside when he died on