John Bowes - Lyon John Herbert " Jock " Bowes - Lyon ( 1 April 1886 – 7 February 1930 ) , was the second son of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne , the favourite brother of Elizabeth Bowes - Lyon ( the future Queen Elizabeth and later the Queen Mother ) . He was an uncle to Queen Elizabeth II , although he died when she was a small child . Personal life . Jock Bowes - Lyon was educated at Oxford University where he played first - class cricket for the university side in three matches in 1906 and 1907 , playing as a fast - medium bowler . On 29 September 1914 , John married The Honourable Fenella Hepburn - Stuart - Forbes - Trefusis ( 19 August 1889 – 19 July 1966 ) , the younger daughter of Charles Hepburn - Stuart - Forbes - Trefusis , 21st Baron Clinton . They had five children , all girls : Before the outbreak of World War I , John worked as a stockbroker in the City of London for the firm Rowe and Pitman . In 1915 , he was posted with the Black Watch and just prior to the Battle of Aubers Ridge that year , he accidentally shot himself in his left forefinger . It was amputated the following day and while receiving treatment in the UK , he admitting having experienced a nervous breakdown in 1912 and also suffered from neurasthenia . Late that year , he was posted to the Ministry of Munitions and then in the Territorial Army in 1916 . After the war , he was twice threatened with courts - martial after having failed to show on parade for demobilisation and later returned to his job in the City . Jock died at the family home of Glamis Castle just after midnight on the morning of 7 February 1930 of pneumonia , aged 44 , leaving his widow to care for their four young children alone . ( Two of them , Nerissa and Katherine , were severely mentally disabled . ) Three days later he was buried at St Paul ' s Walden Bury . His widow was a leading guest at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip , Duke of Edinburgh . Nerissa and Katherine Bowes - Lyon . Nerissa and Katherine Bowes - Lyon are two of the daughters of John Herbert Bowes - Lyon and his wife Fenella ( née Hepburn - Stuart - Forbes - Trefusis ) . As John was the brother of Elizabeth Bowes - Lyon the Queen Mother , the two daughters are first cousins of Queen Elizabeth II , sharing one pair of grandparents , Claude Bowes - Lyon , 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Nina Bowes - Lyon , Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne . In 1987 , it was revealed that Nerissa and Katherine had been placed in Earlswood Hospital for the mentally disabled in 1941 . Although Nerissa died in 1986 , and Katherine is still alive ( as of 2012 ) , both had been listed in Burke ' s Peerage as being dead since the 1963 edition . Suggestions of a royal cover - up were rejected in the press by Lord Clinton , who thought that his aunt Fenella ( the mother of the two daughters ) had completed the form for Burke ' s Peerage incorrectly due to ' vagueness ' ; however , Burke ' s Peerage included specific dates of death for both sisters . According to a 2011 television documentary about the sisters , " throughout their time at the hospital , there is no known record that the sisters were ever visited by any member of the Bowes - Lyon or royal families , despite their aunt , the Queen Mother , being a Patron of MENCAP " ( the charity for people with a learning disability ) . Nurses interviewed on the documentary said that , to their knowledge , the family never even sent the sisters a birthday or Christmas gift or card . When Nerissa died in 1986 , none of her family attended the funeral . She was buried at Redhill Cemetery . Her grave was only marked with plastic tags and a serial number until her existence was revealed in the media , after which the family added a proper gravestone . Three other mentally disabled cousins also lived in Earlswood Hospital . Harriet Hepburn - Stuart - Forbes - Trefusis ( 1887 – 1958 ) , sister of Nerissa and Katherine ' s mother Fenella , married Major Henry Nevile Fane , and 3 of their 7 children lived in Earlswood Hospital : Idonea Elizabeth Fane ( 1912 – 2002 ) , Rosemary Jean Fane ( 1914 - 1972 ) , and Ethelreda Flavia Fane ( 1922 – 1996 ) . Prof . David Danks , then director of the Murdoch Institute , thought that a genetic disease may have killed male members of the family in early childhood . In 1996 the surviving cousins were moved to Ketwin House care home in Surrey ; when it closed in 2001 , they were moved to another care home in Surrey .