Nikki Sievwright

Nicola Macwilliam Sievwright (née Ross; 28 January 1943 – 12 March 2018) was an English fashion model who worked for Chloé and Peter Lumley. After marrying a cavalry officer in the British Army and moving to Northern Ireland, she joined the Ulster Defence Regiment as a greenfinch.

Nicola Sievwright
Nikki Ross's model card, Peter Lumley, 1969
Born
Nicola Macwilliam Ross

(1943-01-28)28 January 1943
Uckfield, Sussex, England
Died12 March 2018(2018-03-12) (aged 75)
Swindon, Wiltshire, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationModel, soldier
Spouse(s)
  • John Venning
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1968; div. 1974)​
  • David Sievwright
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1974)​
Children2
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
UnitUlster Defence Regiment
Battles/warsThe Troubles

Early life and family

Nicola Ross was born on 28 January 1943 to Charles Ross, an officer in the Colonial Service in Sierra Leone, and his wife Nina. Her mother was sent to England for Nikki's birth and she did not see her father until 1947. Her mother died four years later and her father remarried. The family moved to Jersey where Nicola attended the Victoria College and became a strong horse rider.[1]

Ross married the property developer John Venning in 1968 and, after they were divorced in 1974, David Sievwright, an officer in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. They had one son and one daughter.[1][2]

Modelling

After school, Ross moved to Paris where she was signed as a model for the French fashion house Chloé at the age of 18. Two years later she moved to London. In November 1965 she took part in a fashion show aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York designed to capitalise on the Swinging London phenomenon with the aim of taking £1m of fashion orders in one week.[1] She worked with Gavin Robinson of Old Bond Street in 1966 and 1967[3] and was signed by Peter Lumley. She was tipped to replace Jean Shrimpton and became a regular in the gossip columns but disappointed the newspapers with her clean lifestyle.[1]

Ulster Defence Regiment

After her husband and his regiment were posted to Northern Ireland during The Troubles in the 1970s, Nikki Sievwright joined the Ulster Defence Regiment as a greenfinch, an act unprecedented for a cavalry officer's wife. She continued to work as a model.[1] Women were first admitted to the regiment in 1973 due to a shortage of women from other services who could perform tasks only suitable for a woman to carry out, such as searching other women for explosives.[4] In 1978, while operating a checkpoint in the "bandit country" of County Tyrone, near the border with the Irish Republic, Sievwright captured a wanted man after she found his passport hidden in the knickers of a woman he was with.[1]

Later life

Sievwright later travelled around the world with her husband as he held various posts in military intelligence and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.[1][5] She retired to Wiltshire where she rode horses and played tennis. She died of sepsis at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, on 12 March 2018.[1][6]

References
  1. Nikki Sievwright obituary. The Times, 7 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  2. A Ride Back in Time. Bassam Za'Za, Gulf News, 8 February 2003. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  3. Model Nikki Ross. The Model Archives of Marlowe Press. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. Greenfinches join the UDR. Royal Irish. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  5. Cavalry horses moved due to noise. BBC News, 21 July 2006. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  6. Sievwright. The Daily Telegraph, March 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
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