Stratford Guild's talk - Wednesday 10 September REVIEW

The Guild's 2025-26 season began on Wednesday 10 September at 7.30 pm in the Reading Room, with a talk by Colin van Geffen entitled 'The Lady who saved the Nation'.

Review follows:

When Mr van Geffen began his presentation by asking the audience who had heard of Lucy, no one had. This did not surprise him. By the end of his presentation, however, it seemed amazing that the life and achievements of this remarkable woman seem to have disappeared from our history.

Lucy was a well-known socialite – a wealthy, powerful, political activist and a philanthropist. Known to the highest in society, she was invited to attend the coronation of King George V in 1911 where it was recorded that she was “the most beautiful peeress present”. Fiercely loyal to this country she became determined, in her own words, “to help our dear country back to the days when we were honoured and respected by the whole world”.

Lucy came from humble beginnings. Born in London in 1857, the seventh of eight surviving children, by the age of 16 she was a dancer in a chorus line.  She met and became the mistress of Frederick Gretton, a wealthy man whose family were part of the Bass brewing empire. When he died suddenly in 1882, he left her an income of £6,000 per year (possibly worth nearly a million pounds today). Now independently wealthy, she used her wealth to work her way upwards through society by way of marriage. Aged 25 she married Sir Theodore Francis Brinckman. They divorced in 1895, but remained good friends. In 1901 Lucy married Lord George Byron, a descendant of the poet Byron.

During the marriage Lucy became an active supporter of the suffragette movement and was described as “a thorn in the flesh of officialdom”. However, when the movement began to take more violent action Lucy made it clear that she did not support violence.

When the First World War started in 1914 Lucy devoted herself and her wealth to saving her country. She led a protest movement to demand that women be allowed to do war work. Lucy was especially concerned by the appalling conditions in which the nurses worked treating the wounded. She bought a house in Hampstead to be used as a rest home for the nurses. For her support of their cause, she was awarded the DBE thus becoming a Dame.

  Lord George Byron had died in 1917 and in 1924 Lucy married for the final time, to Sir Robert Houston, a wealthy businessman and a former MP for Toxteth. He died in 1926 and Lucy became the second richest woman in England.

Lucy became convinced that in a future conflict the Air Force would play a major role. When the Schneider Trophy Air Race was to be contested  in 1929, she appealed to the government to invest in developing a superior engine for the aircraft so that Britain could secure the trophy.  The government refused. Lucy invested her own money in the development of an engine by Rolls Royce which won the trophy, but also led to the development of the Spitfire which played such a vital role in the defence of this country during the Second World War. In 1932 she funded the development of high altitude flying which also played a vital role during World War 2.

Sadly, she did not live to know how her foresight and funding achieved her   aim of defending her beloved country. A forceful personality she enjoyed her wealth, but also shared it with others and was generous to charities, the poor and disadvantaged.

  From the age of 75 her health was failing and she was confined to bed.  In December 1936 she died and is buried at East Finchley Cemetery.

Colin’s final comment was that Lucy did things other people didn’t do and was successful at it, but her achievements were not recognised by the Politicians or the Press.

The presentation gave everyone much to think about and led to much discussion afterwards. We had learned of a woman and a piece of history of which we had had no knowledge. Our thanks were expressed to Mr Van Geffen for his very informative and amusing presentation.

Judith Kennard