Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry
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Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry DBE (3 December 1878 – 23 April 1959) was a noted and influential society hostess in Britain between the two World Wars. Born Edith Helen Chaplin in Blankney, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of Henry Chaplin (later the 1st Viscount Chaplin). After the death of her mother in 1881, Edith was raised largely at Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, the estate of her maternal grandfather, the third Duke of Sutherland.
On 28 November 1899, she married Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who later inherited his father's title in 1915, whereupon Edith became known as The Marchioness of Londonderry. They had five children, the firstborn of whom became the 8th Marquess in 1949, at which point Lady Londonderry became known as Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry.
In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, she was appointed the Colonel-in-Chief of the Women's Volunteer Reserve, a volunteer force formed of women replacing the men who had left work and gone up to The Front. The Reserve was renamed in July 1914 to be the Women's Legion, and was considerable in size by the end of the War, comprising tens of thousands of volunteers. Lady Londonderry also aided with the organisation of the Officers' Hospital set up in her house, and was the first woman to be appointed to be a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Military Division, upon the Order's establishment in 1917.
During the 1920s, Lady Londonderry created the gardens at the Londonderry family estate of Mount Stewart, near Newtownards, County Down. Bringing many rare and unusual plants, she made the garden into one of the best in the British Isles.
She was mentioned in Tim Pat Coogan's book on Michael Collins to have possibly been one of Collins' paramours while he was in London in 1922, suing for peace with the British government and hoping to end the Anglo-Irish War. He was also linked to Moya Llewellyn-Davies (neé O'Connor) and Lady Hazel, wife of Sir John Lavery.
Lady Londonderry's friendship with the Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, although platonic, was a source of malicious gossip. Not only did MacDonald seem to be infatuated with Lady Londonderry, it was alleged that their friendship was a reason why Lord Londonderry was appointed Minister for Air in the National Government.
Lady Londonderry also wrote or edited several books, among which are Henry Chaplin: A Memoir (1926), The Magic Ink-Pot (1928), Retrospect (1938) and Frances Anne: The Life and Times of Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry, and Her Husband, Charles, Third Marquess of Londonderry (1958).
She died of cancer on April 23, 1959, aged 80.
[edit] For more information
- De Courcy, Anne. Society's Queen: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry. London: Phoenix, 2004. ISBN 0-7538-1730-6 (Originally published as Circe: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992. ISBN 1-85619-363-2 )
