Nerissa Jane Irene Bowes-Lyon (February 18, 1919–1986) was a niece of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother[1] and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family informed Burke's Peerage that she had died in 1940. When it became apparent that this was not the case the editor of the book responded, "if that is what members of the family told us, then we would have included it. It is not normal to doubt the word of members of the royal family."[2] A daughter of the Honorable John Herbert Bowes-Lyon (died 1930) and his wife, the Honorable Fenella Hepburn-Stewart-Forbes-Trefusis (died 1966), Nerissa and her sister Katherine Bowes-Lyon were born mentally impaired. When Nerissa was 22 and Katherine was 15, they were removed from their family home and placed in the Royal Earlswood Hospital in Surrey where Nerissa spent the next 46 years. The sisters reportedly had the mental age of six and were largely unable to speak. They had two sisters who were born without any handicaps, Anne Ferelith Fenella Bowes-Lyon (1917–1980) and the socialite Diana Cinderella Mildred Bowes-Lyon, Mrs. Peter Somervell (1923–1986); she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II. Three of the Bowes-Lyon sisters' cousins were institutionalized as well, all classified as mentally disturbed: Idonea, Etheldreda, and Rosemary Fane. Nerissa Bowes-Lyon was buried in Redhill, Surrey.
