Missing in action: Fergie the ‘bossy general’ and her grandiose plans

The former duchess envisaged herself at the helm of a global organisation dreamed up, and majority owned, by Jeffrey Epstein

- Jon Ungoed-Thomas

In March 2010 Sarah Ferguson filed papers with the US trademark office outlining her ambitions for a charity and various private enterprises to support mothers around the world.

She signed the paperwork “Sarah, creator of mothers’ army”.

Filings seen by The Observer reveal Ferguson’s grandiose ambitions more than a decade ago for a global organisation, with her at the head in a role she later described as a “bossy general”.

The US Department of Justice documents concerning Jeffrey Epstein released earlier this year reveal it was the paedophile financier who had first suggested the venture while in prison for procuring a minor for prostitution. It was proposed he would be the majority owner.

The planned launch of Mothers’ Army was abandoned, the trademark lapsed, and the UK business once based at Ferguson’s former residence of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, has been shut down. It was one of several ventures spawned by Ferguson’s ambitions for a business and charitable empire.

Most of these ventures are now shuttered in the fallout from the Epstein scandal. Seven of her UK-based firms were voluntarily struck off the UK company register in May, including the firm Loonasol, which proposed to sell fine linens under a brand called the “Duchess Collection”.

Ferguson’s charity Sarah’s Trust, a grant-giving body which aims to fight poverty, was removed by application from the register of charities on 8 June, with funds transferred to the Humanitas charity which delivers global healthcare programmes.

Thousands of copies of Ferguson’s children’s book Flora & Fern: Kindness Along the Way were pulped last year, with book signings cancelled across the UK. The book credited Ferguson as the “Duchess of York”, a title she lost last year when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor relinquished the dukedom.