STRANGFORD (Emily, d. 1887, née Beaufort, wife of Percy Smythe, 1826-1869, from 1857 8th Viscount)

Autograph Letter Signed to Augusta Mary née Douglas, (1811-1899, wife of John Fitzpatrick, 1807-1883, from 1869 1st Baron Castletown), saying that "nothing could give me greater pleasure than to go and see you at Wimbledon but ... I have not been out after 2 o'clock in the afternoon since I returned to England till yesterday - when Lady Wynford took me out", she will come "when the afternoons get warm & bearable ... I was extremely pleased to get your kind note. With kindest regards to Mrs. Wingfield", (d. 1918, Lady Castletown's daughter), 2 sides 8vo. black-edged, bold embossed arms and coronet, 3 Upper Brook Street, W., 2nd April

The Viscountess was a daughter of Admiral Beaufort and trained as a nurse in London. She was the moving spirit behind the National Association for providing Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor. During the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876 she collected £30,000 for relief work, and in 1877 she started another fund, went to the Turkish front with her nurses, and was captured by the Russians. And in the 1882 expedition she started the Victoria Hospital in Cairo, for which she received from the Queen the Royal Red Cross in 1883. Her husband, a diplomat, had been the most remarkable linguist, and she herself was a great traveller and writer.

Item Date:  1885

Stock No:  16389      £60

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire