Mary Churchill was born on 15 September 1922, the youngest daughter of Winston Churchill and Clementine Spencer-Churchill (née Hozier). She was educated privately, and married [Arthur] Christopher Soames in 1947, with whom she had three sons and two daughters.

During the war, Mary worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service, 1939-41, and the Auxiliary Territorial Service, 1941-6, with whom she served in London, Belgium and Germany. She also accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on a number of official overseas trips, including to the Potsdam Conference, 1945.

She accompanied her husband to Paris [France] where he was Ambassador, 1968-72; to Brussels [Belgium] where he was Vice President of the European Commission, 1973-6; and to Southern Rhodesia [later Zimbabwe] where he was the last British Governor, December 1979-April 1980.

She was Chairman of the Royal National Theatre Board, 1989-95, and Chairman of Trustees of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, 1991-2002. She became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1980, and a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, 2005. Her other honours include: Honorary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, 1983; Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, 1995; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 2000; and received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal, 2005.

Mary Soames died on 31 May 2014.

She was a prolific writer and her publications include: "Clementine Churchill by Her Daughter" (1979 and 2002); "A Churchill Family Album" (1982); "The Profligate Duke" (1987); "Winston Churchill: His Life as a Painter" (1990); "Speaking for Themselves" (1998); and "A Daughter's Tale" (2011).