Sonia Elizabeth Sinclair, JP (née Graham; formerly Mond; 6 September 1925 – 17 August 2026), known as Sonia Melchett, was an English socialite and author. Once married to Julian Mond, Baron Melchett, she married the writer Andrew Sinclair after her husband's death.
Early life Sonia Melchett was born in British India on 6 September 1925, the eldest daughter of Lt-Col Roland Harris Graham and Kathleen (née Dunbar) Graham, of The Lodge, Bridge, Kent.Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 2011, p. 1065 Her father, of a County Fermanagh family,Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976, p. 485 was educated at Cambridge University and Trinity College, Dublin, and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Second World War. Sonia Melchett was educated at the Royal School, Bath. Her younger sister Daphne married Major Anthony Henry Ivor Kinsman and became an actress, broadcaster and writer. She was the presenter of the BBC news programme Look North and wrote the book Pawn takes Castle.
Personal life and death Graham married the Honourable Julian Edward Alfred Mond, younger son of Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett and Amy Gwen Mond Baroness Melchett (née Wilson) on 26 April 1947, and became Lady Melchett on the death of her father-in-law on 22 January 1949.
Melchett died on 17 August 2026, aged 100.
Publications From the Ganges to The Thames: A Memoir, 2016. Passionate Quests Five Modern Women Travellers, Faber and Faber, 1992. Someone is missing : a memoir, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1987 I Sons and Mothers, Virago Press, 1996 by Victoria Glendinning (Editor), Matthew Glendinning (Lady Sonia Melchett was one of seven contributors);
References
Sources Bright Young Things, Oxford University
BBC News, Tuesday, 27 July 1999 'Lord Melchett: Aristocrat eco-warrior' The Daily Telegraph, Mandrake, 'Reunited atlLast' 11.06. 2005, Anna Ford/Jonathan Aitken incident Michael Alexander, a member of the Chelsea Set Nigel Dempster, Daily Telegraph, 13.07.2007