Lord Charles O’Hagan, a godson of the late Queen Elizabeth II, has died at the age of 79 after sustaining a severe head injury.
O’Hagan, whose full name was Charles Towneley Strachey O’Hagan, passed away on March 23 at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, southwest England, Hello! Magazine reported.
His official cause of death was listed as a subdural hematoma - a condition caused by bleeding from burst blood vessels following a head injury.
According to the NHS, "Blood escapes from the blood vessel, leading to the formation of a blood clot (haematoma) that places pressure on the brain and damages it".
Details about how the injury occurred have not been disclosed.
O’Hagan shared a deep connection with the British royal family.
The late Queen became his godmother when she was still Princess Elizabeth, a bond formed through his mother, Lady Mary Sophia Palmer, who served as Lady-in-Waiting to the future queen between 1944 and 1947 and later as Extra Lady-in-Waiting until 1949.
Lady Mary was even present at Buckingham Palace following the birth of King Charles III in 1948.
His royal ties didn’t end there. O’Hagan served as Page of Honor to Queen Elizabeth II from 1959 to 1962 and was notably photographed in 1960 carrying the monarch’s train during the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle.
Educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford, O’Hagan followed in the political footsteps of his grandfather, Maurice Towneley-O’Hagan, 3rd Baron O’Hagan.
He served as a Member of the European Parliament for Devon in two stints - from 1973 to 1975, and again from 1979 to 1994.
O’Hagan’s personal life saw three marriages. He wed Georgian Princess Tamar Bagration-Imeretinsky in 1967, and the couple had a daughter, Nino Natalia O’Hagan Strachey, born in 1968. The marriage ended in 1984.
He then married Mary Claire Roose-Francis in 1985, but they divorced ten years later. His third and final marriage was to Elizabeth Lesley Eve Smith in 1995, with whom he remained until his passing.
Queen Elizabeth II had 30 godchildren throughout her lifetime, including her nephew David Armstrong-Jones, son of Princess Margaret and Earl Spencer. However, many of her godchildren’s identities have never been publicly revealed.
The late monarch died in September 2022 at the age of 96. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regent in history.