the Earl's family. Lavinia Swire Lavinia Catherine Swire (played by Zoe Boyle) (1895–1919) is the sweetheart and fiancée of Matthew Crawley. She is the daughter of London solicitor Reggie Swire, to whom she has been very close ever since her mother's death during her early childhood. In 1912, she brings private papers of her uncle Jonathan Swire, a Liberal minister, to Sir Richard Carlisle since Sir Richard plans to financially ruin her father. The papers Lavinia stole inadvertently helped create the Marconi scandal. She first meets Matthew when he is back in England on leave from the Army and they later become engaged. When Matthew returns from the First World War injured she refuses to leave him despite being told that he will never walk again and is impotent. Lavinia dies at Downton of Spanish influenza after Matthew regains use of his legs and shortly before their wedding. Just before her death she confesses to Matthew that she had seen the kiss between him and Mary and tells him that her death is the best for all of them. Her father dies shortly after and Matthew honours his deathbed wish for his ashes to be placed in Lavinia's grave. Matthew is left a considerable sum by Mr Swire, and Matthew is initially consumed with guilt and refuses to accept it. Matthew eventually relents and uses the money to save Downton Abbey from bankruptcy following Lord Grantham's having lost his wife's fortune through bad investments. Sir Richard Carlisle Richard Carlisle (played by Iain Glen) is the fiancé of Lady Mary Crawley in series two. The brusque, domineering and nouveau riche Carlisle is a self-made, extremely wealthy newspaper magnate from Edinburgh whose paper, with the help of Lavinia Swire, was instrumental in breaking the Marconi scandal story. It is to Carlisle, as a man of influence, that Lady Mary turns to when she concludes that marrying Matthew is not an option. However, Violet and the family remain suspicious of him as he is "new money" and is described by Lord Grantham as "a hawker of newspaper scandal". Although he says his feelings for her are sincere, and he offers to buy a stately home near Downton where they can live together and start a family, he demands near-total control and threatens that if she leaves him he will expose her liaison with Ottoman attaché Kemal Pamuk, which he has covered up from