Sacha named Alexandra Anastasia at birth, was born in Tuscon, Arizona. Her father Lt. Col. Harold Phillips suffered with tuberculosis and the heat of Arizona was the only available cure for it at the time. However, at just a few months old, Sacha was taken to England and raised in Leicestershire.
Sacha's Russian associations stem from her paternal grandmother Countess Anastasia Torby, the daughter of Grand Duke Michael of Russia and the great-granddaughter of Alexander Pushkin. Grand Duke Michael bore the name 'Romanov,' the house name of the Russian Imperial Family. The Countess Torby however was denied this name as her parents' marriage was deemed unequal. After her own marriage to Baronet Wernher, the Countess changed her name to Lady Zia Wernher. It is their daughter Georgina who in turn produced Sacha.
Sacha, the eldest of four children was sent off to boarding school at an early age. Not being very academically minded, Sacha scraped through school and enrolled into a secretarial college. Her objectives were modified when at the age of 19 she became engaged to James Hamilton. They married one year later.
Hamilton, then a Marquis now the Duke of Abercorn, was a member of Parliament for the Ulster Unionist Party. Sacha's life was split between London and Ireland until 1976, when upon losing his seat, the couple permanantly moved to the family home of 'Baronscourt' in County Tyrone.
It was a time of political turmoil in Northern Ireland. With the troubles intensifying, the Duchess found herself becoming increasingly concerned for the children and the effect the political unrest was having on them. During her time in London, Sacha had worked with a transpersonal psychologist, which in turn led her to learn more about the subject herself.
Wishing to put her knowledge to work, Sacha decided to become a Samaritan in Omagh. Listening to people talk about their problems, she discovered that she was becoming increasingly interested in the state of mind of her fellow Samaritans. Sacha began to wonder who was there for them to share their problems and hear their anxieties. It was her study into transpersonal psychotherapy that helped her decide to assist her coworkers.
