A high society wedding! Lady Alice Manners, 31, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, announces her engagement to boyfriend Patch

High society socialite Lady Alice Manners has announced she is engaged to her long-term boyfriend Patch.

Lady Alice, who is the second oldest daughter of David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, and Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland, shared the joyous news on Instagram with a carousel of sweet snaps from the countryside proposal. 

‘Horses, a Diamond and most importantly Patch… had to be a YES,’ Lady Alice captioned the heartwarming images. 

Dressed in a stylish brown fur coat, the 31-year-old beamed as she showed off the glistening engagement ring in a country field, believed to be at Grade I-listed Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. 

The pair have kept their relationship rather lowkey – with speculation of their romance beginning at Alice’s Midsummer Night’s Dream-themed 30th birthday celebrations last April. 

Writing on her personal Substack newsletter, The Accidental Duchess, Alice’s mother Emma revealed: ‘Vi gave a wonderful speech, and Alice’s boyfriend Patch, delivered a Shakespearean ode on love.’ 

Alice’s sister, Lady Eliza Manners, commented on the engagement post: ‘The best news! Watch out Patch, you’re a Manners now’.

Alice, who is well-known in British equestrian circles and grew up riding, also shared a sweet snap of the couple horse-riding. In another image, she showed off her ring against the side of a white horse.

In March, the stylish socialite shared several images from a romantic trip to Mauritius with her now-fiancé Patch – whose real name is Patrick Fordham – with the pair seen soaking up the sunshine and crystal-blue waters.

Alice was previously in a relationship with Otis Ferry, the son of musician Bryan Ferry. The couple, who lived together at Belvoir Castle, ended their relationship in 2022. 

Her joyous engagement news comes just months after the Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden revealed that she had suffered a robbery on an LNER train. 

The stolen suitcase contained several outfits and a white handbag once owned by her great-grandmother, the late Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll.

Lady Alice describes the bag, which is monogrammed with an M for Margaret, as ‘priceless and irreplaceable’. The duchess was played by Claire Foy in the 2021 BBC drama A Very British Scandal.

‘I know exactly where it is and where the guy is who stole it,’ she says. ‘The British Transport Police have a photo of the man that stole it. But they would not share with me the CCTV footage of the guy who stole it.’

She begged the police online: ‘Why won’t you send someone to retrieve it?’ The police cannot enter a property without a warrant, for which more evidence than just tracker data is required.

Last April, Alice invited her nearest and dearest to come together at the 15,000-acre estate for A Midsummer Night’s Dream-themed birthday celebration.

In addition to her well-to-do friends, the second oldest daughter of David and Emma Manners was joined by her sisters, Lady Eliza and Violet Lindesay-Bethune, Countess of Lindsay.

Also in attendance was Hum Fleming, the great-niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, who married former Tory minister Lord (Zac) Goldsmith in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire last September.

Mr Eden revealed: ‘PR executive Hum, 35, wore a spectacular green dress and a floral crown to the 30th birthday party of Lady Alice Manners at her ancestral seat, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire.

‘Hum was joined by her twin sister, Chloe, who wore a pink veil and a larger floral headpiece. Chloe, who works for events firm Sharky & George, was seen struggling to keep the flowers on her head while searching for her placement at the dining table.

‘Lady Alice, one of the Duke of Rutland’s spirited three daughters, wore a pink dress for the party, whose theme was A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

The pink dress was full of sentimental meaning for Alice as it once belonged to her grandmother.

Taking to Instagram, Alice explained: ‘It was my Granny’s wedding dress, and when she passed away last January, I got to try it on for the first time.

‘It fit like a glove, and I knew I had to wear it one day for a special moment. Turning 30 is just that! I have never worn anything so beautiful, and I hope she was happy looking down watching me swish around in it.’

Elsewhere, Alice’s close friend and Soho property heiress, India Rose James, also picked a vintage find for the glitzy party that was held over the weekend.

Eden explained, ‘Her pal India Rose James, 33, says: “I finally had the perfect reason to wear the most amazing vintage Galliano dress.”‘

Chief among Alice’s guests was her sister, Eliza Manners, who shared a series of images from her sister’s bash as well as details of her outfit.

‘A very fun night in the best Portobello Market find,’ she wrote alongside an image of her sporting a silk orange frock.

While it might come as a surprise to some, Lady Eliza can often be found scouring through rails of second-hand clothing in pursuit of hidden sartorial gems.

Alice previously wrote in the Daily Mail: ‘You might imagine that my sisters – Violet and Eliza – and I were brought up with all the new clothes we could possibly want. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

‘For as long as I can remember my mother, Emma, the Duchess of Rutland – who raised us at our ancestral home Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire – has been passionate about buying second-hand clothing, long before it was trendy.’

Alice explained that her mother was never snobby about buying other people’s cast-offs, preferring to see it as giving new life to special garments. And Emma passed that passion on to her children.