Lady Naomi Anna Gordon-Lennox (born March 1962), known as Nimmy March, is an English actress.

Background

March's biological parents were a father from

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

and an English mother. As an illegitimate child, she was abandoned by her birth mother. She was adopted by the Earl and Countess of March and Kinrara, who later became the Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Because of her race, at the time the adoption caused a stir within the peerage and the future Duke and Duchess were vilified by some for "sullying the aristocracy", as March herself described it. She went to Bedales, an exclusive

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

school, before going on to drama school.

Career

March's television screen credits include ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

'', ''

Albion Market ''Albion Market'' is a British soap opera, set in a covered market in Salford, in the north-west of England. It was intended as a companion to fellow ITV soap ''Coronation Street'', starting at 7:00 pm on Fridays and 7:15 pm on Sundays. Owing ...

'', '' Common As Muck'', '' Goodnight Sweetheart'', ''

Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

'', ''

William and Mary William and Mary often refers to: * The joint reign of William III of England (II of Scotland) and Mary II of England (and Scotland) * William and Mary style, a furniture design common from 1700 to 1725 named for the couple William and Mary may al ...

'', ''

Doctors Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

'', '' Strictly Confidential'', ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

'', '' London's Burning'', '' Waking the Dead'', ''

Death in Paradise ''Death in Paradise'' is a crime drama, crime television series created by Robert Thorogood, starring Ben Miller (Series 1–3), Kris Marshall (Series 3–6), Ardal O'Hanlon (Series 6–9), Ralf Little (Series 9–13) and Don Gilet (2024 Speci ...

'', ''

Agatha Raisin Agatha Raisin is a fictional detective in a series of humorous mystery novels, originally written by Marion Chesney using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton. Chesney's friend Rod W. Green took over as writer with ''Hot to Trot''. The books are publish ...

'', ''

Desmond's ''Desmond's'' is a British television sitcom broadcast by Channel 4 from 5 January 1989 to 19 December 1994. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, ''Desmond's'' stars Norman Beaton as b ...

'' and ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

''. She narrated the 2008 TV serial ''

Last Voices of World War 1 The ''Last Voices of World War 1'' is a six-part series screened on The History Channel in the UK from 9 November 2008 to 14 December 2008 with a repeat during the week. Its initial episode was screened on Remembrance Sunday 2008. The series was ...

'' on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

, along with the

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

documentary ''The War On Loan Sharks''.

Personal life

Until 2004, children who were adopted by peers had no right to any noble or

courtesy title A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title). In some context ...

. However, as a result of a Royal Warrant dated 30 April 2004, all children are now automatically entitled to the same styles and courtesy titles. Therefore, on that date, she became Lady Naomi Burke. She married Gavin Burke in 1999, but they subsequently divorced. They have three children: Khaya (born 1999), Malachy (born 2001), and Carlotta (born 2005). She has four siblings, including a sister who is also mixed-race. She is

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

.''The Times''
/ref>

References

External links

*

page re famous adoptions
"Relative Values: The Duke of Richmond and Nimmy March"
- Webpage of

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:March, Nimmy 1962 births Living people Actresses from Surrey English bisexual actresses Black British actresses Daughters of British dukes English adoptees English Buddhists English television actresses English people of South African descent Nimmy Black British LGBTQ people LGBTQ Buddhists LGBTQ nobility Actors educated at Bedales School Actors from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames People from Kingston upon Thames