Alice Magdalen Sarah Ormsby-Gore (22 April 1952 – 5 April 1995) was a British aristocrat who was part of the fashion and arts counter-culture in London during the 1960s. For about five years she was the romantic partner of guitarist Eric Clapton. The couple were briefly subjected to media speculation about a possible marriage. She died of a heroin overdose in 1995.
Early life
Ormsby-Gore was born at her family's ancestral home, Brogyntyn Hall, in Shropshire, England. She was the youngest daughter of David Ormsby-Gore, M.P., and his first wife, Sylvia ('Sissy') Lloyd-Thomas (1920–1967). Alice's siblings were Julian (1940–1974), Jane (b.1942), Victoria (b.1946), and Francis (1954–2016). The Ormsby-Gore family were, by descent, an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family who once owned a large country estate in County Leitrim.
David Ormsby-Gore succeeded as The 5th Baron Harlech in February 1964. From 1961 to 1965, Lord Harlech served as British Ambassador to the United States. The Ormsby-Gores enjoyed a close social relationship with the President and First Lady during their time in Washington. Alice played with some of the Kennedy children, including during visits to Robert F. Kennedy's home at Hickory Hill., and attended charity concerts at the White House, as on 19 November 1962. The connection between the families continued long after the President's death. For example, Alice was present at the dedication of the Kennedy memorial site at Runnymede, England on 14 May 1965. Her father was romantically linked with Jackie Kennedy in 1968.
The Ormsby-Gore family attracted the attention of the American media. The Washington Post published a picture of Alice and Francis on their bikes taken by staff photographer Douglas Chevalier: 'They are the Newest on the New Frontier ... When not taking lessons at the Embassy from their governess Elizabeth Shenton, they ride their bicycles, build miniature paper houses and gardens, or discuss farming at the family's country place Woodhill in Oswestry, Shropshire.' By February 1962 Alice was enrolled at the Stone Ridge Country Day school, a Catholic, independent school for girls at Bethesda, Maryland, about 30 minutes from the British Embassy.
Ormsby-Gore returned to the UK in 1965 with her parents, and had only just turned 15 when on 30 May 1967 her mother was killed in a car accident. Early in 1968 she was reported as being in a London school and living with Lord Harlech's mother, the dowager Lady Harlech. Time magazine reported on Friday, 12 April 1968, that Lord Harlech would be sending his "15-year-old daughter, Alice Ormsby Gore, to Manhattan's Dalton School for the coming spring term. Alice will stay at the East Side apartment of a family friend, John Hay Whitney, former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's." This was probably her last period of formal education.
While in New York in 1968, Ormsby-Gore appeared in a film by Gerard Joseph Malanga. A later New York Times article mentions this film: 'When Alice Ormsby-Gore shows up in town, it's usually an event. When she was here in 1968 she got up at dawn so she and Looloo de la Falaise [1948–2011] could sweep down the steps leading to Bethesda Fountain in their long, flowing dresses while Andy Warhol's octagonal, prismatic lens recorded it all for his 20‐minute short, "pre‐Raphaelite Dream".
She was still in New York when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968. She was joined there by her father, and on June 8 both were on board the famous RFK funeral train which drew hundreds of thousands of people to see it as it carried his body to Washington and burial at Arlington (Lord Harlech was a pallbearer). This happened on the first anniversary of the death of her mother.
Ormsby-Gore returned to the UK sometime in the summer of 1968. Jenny Boyd met Alice at the Chelsea Antique Market sometime shortly after Jenny's return from Rishikesh, India. The Ormsby-Gore sisters had a passion for artistic and exotic clothes, and in the late 1960s they bought some of the Ballets Russes' vintage costumes at auctions.