VIDEO: Chatsworth’s Duchess recalled tea with Hitler

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire who has died, aged 94

“I suppose it is rather odd looking back,” the Duchess said with a smile at her stately home on Chatsworth House, as she recalled having tea with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1937.

Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, or “Debo” to her friends, was the last surviving Mitford sister and has died

aged 94.

In tribute we take a look back at her colourful life with an interview we first carried four years ago when Nik Brear spoke to her about an exhibition looking back at her life and her then forthcoming autobiography, Wait For Me.

VIDEO: Press the play button to watch our interview with the Duchess.

Dowager Duchess of Devonshire dies aged 94.

Chatsworth Dowager’s death mourned by public and high society.

Of her visit to meet Adolf Hitler she said: “At the time it seemed perfectly ordinary. He was staying in a flat when we visited him and I do remember thinking his set-up was very regular and somewhat haphazard for a head of state.”

The Duchess, aged 17 at the time, was in Munich visiting her sister Unity - a Nazi sympathiser and close friend of Hitler - when Hitler heard of the visit and invited them to join him for tea.

“I couldn’t speak German and neither could my mother so it was a slow job as Unity had to translate everything that was said,” the Duchess recalled.

“I remember thinking he was very nice and friendly. Twice he rang the bell for the housekeeper and no one came which I found amazing for a man of his position.”

This is just one of many fascinating stories The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah Cavendish, has to tell from the extraordinary nine decades of her life.

Born in 1920, the Duchess was the youngest of the infamous Mitford sisters. In 1941 she married Lord Andrew Cavendish - younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. She has managed the stately home of Chatsworth House for the past 54 years.

The Duchess also unveiled an extraordinary exhibition at Chatsworth in celebration of her 90th birthday.

Oy offered a rare behind-the-scenes peek into her life with a carefully selected collection of personal and treasured belongings.

She said at the time: “It’s been amazing going back through things I haven’t seen for years and years. My skates for instance - I’d quite forgotten I had them.

“Skating is the one thing I’ve felt that I could do really well my whole life. It was probably 1939 when I last wore them. Hunting was another big passion of mine that took over after that.”

The exhibition featured her gun and gamebooks alongside numerous artworks, childhood drawings, diaries and letters and even the robes she wore to the Queen’s coronation in 1953.

“There will be some lovely clothes from Paris on display which I bought about 50 years ago and just love,” she said.

“They’re as good as new and perfectly wearable no matter what the fashion is.”

An unusual telephone that has Elvis singing Jailhouse Rock and a piece of fence from Graceland also catch my eye and the Duchess revealed a passion for the crooner.

“I would have loved to add him to the list of fascinating people I’ve been lucky enough to meet in my life,” she explained.

“I wonder how Elvis and Hitler would have got on...” she mused with a mischevious twinkle in her eye, giving us a glimpse of the sharp wit and humour that hasn’t aged at all.

The exhibition for the Duchess followed on from one held for her late husband.

“Of course his was a great success, but then he had a far more active life I suppose than I did but I hope people will find it interesting,” she said modestly.