Queen Elizabeth served as a royal godmother to a whopping 30 people during her lifetime, and on Wednesday, April 2, it was announced that her third godchild has died. Lord Charles O'Hagan, a former Tory peer, passed away at the age of 79 on March 23 after suffering a subdural hematoma, per reports.
O'Hagan "had a history of falls and states of confusion," according to the Sun. Born in 1945, he was the 4th Baron O'Hagan and became Queen Elizabeth's godson when she was still a princess. The former politician was educated at Eton College, like Prince William and Prince Harry, and he went on to attend the University of Oxford. O'Hagan resided in the village of Beaford, near Winkleigh, Devon.
His early connection to the Royal Family was marked by his role as a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth between 1959 and 1962, a ceremonial role traditionally granted to sons of noble families or senior members of the royal household. Pages assist during state occasions like coronations, as Prince George did for his grandfather in 2023.
O'Hagan's grandfather Maurice Towneley-O'Hagan, the 3rd Baron O'Hagan, was a notable British politician, and the 4th Baron inherited his family's passion for government by serving as a member of the House of Lords from 1961 until 1999. He was also a member of the European Parliament for Devon from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1979 to 1994.
He's not the first one of Queen Elizabeth's godchildren to have passed away. Lord Rupert Nevill, her very first godchild, died in 1993, and Henry Percy, the 11th Duke of Northumberland, died from a drug overdose in 1995.
Interestingly, long before Princess Diana was a member of the Royal Family, the late Queen was named godmother to Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, who was born in 1964.
Other notable godchildren of Queen Elizabeth include George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon (a.k.a. the owner of the real Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle), Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, and Princess Margaret's son, David Armstrong-Jones.
