Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie
Encyclopedia
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, GBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(10 March 1866, Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
– 7 April 1956, Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
, London) was a British courtier and author.
Early life
Born Mabell Frances Elizabeth Gore, she was the eldest daughter of Arthur Gore, Viscount SudleyArthur Gore, 5th Earl of Arran
Arthur Saunders Gore, 5th Earl of Arran KP , known as Viscount Sudley from 1839 to 1884, was an Anglo-Irish peer and diplomat....
and his wife, Edith, daughter of Robert Jocelyn, Viscount Jocelyn
Robert Jocelyn, Viscount Jocelyn
Robert Jocelyn, Viscount Jocelyn , was a British soldier and Conservative politician.-Background:Born at Carlton Gardens, London, Jocelyn was the eldest son and heir apparent of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden, and the Hon...
. Her mother died in 1871 and she and her sisters, Cicely and Esther, were then raised by their maternal grandmother, Lady Jocelyn
Frances Jocelyn, Viscountess Jocelyn
Frances Elizabeth Jocelyn, Viscountess Jocelyn, VA was a British courtier and amateur photographer.The former Lady Frances Elizabeth Cowper was the daughter of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper and his wife, Emily...
.
The sisters were educated by governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
es and made visits to the Duchess of Teck
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
Princess Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth of Cambridge was a member of the British Royal Family, a granddaughter of George III, and great-grandmother of Elizabeth II. She held the title of Duchess of Teck through marriage.Mary Adelaide is remembered as the mother of Queen Mary, the consort of...
at White Lodge, where Mabell met and befriended the duchess's daughter, Princess May
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
(later Queen Mary). When her grandfather, Philip Gore, 4th Earl of Arran
Philip Gore, 4th Earl of Arran
Philip Yorke Gore, 4th Earl of Arran KP , known as Philip Gore until 1837, was an Anglo-Irish peer and diplomat.Born at Dublin Castle, Arran was the eldest son of Colonel the Hon...
died in 1884 and her father inherited the former's titles, she and her sisters were entitled to the nominal prefix of Lady.
Marriage
On 19 January 1886, Lady Mabell married the army officer and peer, David Ogilvy, 11th Earl of AirlieDavid Ogilvy, 11th Earl of Airlie
Lt.-Col. David Stanley William Ogilvy, 11th Earl of Airlie was a Scottish peer.David was born at Florence, Italy. He was the third child and elder son of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie and The Hon...
at St George's, Hanover Square, becoming Countess of Airlie. They had six children:
- Lady Kitty Edith Blanche (1887-1969): married (1) Sir Berkeley VincentBerkeley VincentBrigadier-General Sir Berkeley Vincent, KBE CB CMG was a British army officer and sportsman.-Biography:...
; (2) Ralph Gerald RitsonRalph Gerald RitsonRalph Gerald Ritson was an English champion polo player.captained the British team in the 1913 International Polo Cup. His name also appears among the winners of the -Biography:...
. - Lady Helen Alice Wyllington (1890-1973): married (1) Hon. Clement Freeman-MitfordAlgernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron RedesdaleAlgernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale GCVO, KCB , of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was a British diplomat, collector and writer...
; (2) Henry Brocklehurst - Lady Mabell Griselda Esther Sudley (1892-1918)
- David Lyulph Gore, styled Lord Ogilvy, later 12th Earl of AirlieDavid Ogilvy, 12th Earl of AirlieColonel David Lyulph Gore Wolseley Ogilvy, 12th and 7th Earl of Airlie, KT, GCVO, MC was a Scottish peer, soldier and courtier....
(1893-1968) - Hon. Bruce Arthur Ashley (1895-1976)
- Hon. Patrick Julian Harry Stanley (1896-1917)
On the outbreak of the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
in 1899, Lord Airlie went with his regiment, the 12th Royal Lancers
12th Royal Lancers
The 12th Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. In 1960, it was amalgamated with 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, to form 9th/12th Royal Lancers .-History:...
, to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where he was killed in action at the Battle of Diamond Hill
Battle of Diamond Hill
The Battle of Diamond Hill took place on 11 and 12 June 1900 during the Second Boer War. Fourteen thousand British soldiers squared up against four thousand Boers and forced them from their positions on the hill....
in 1900. Lady Airlie then began to manage Cortachy Castle
Cortachy Castle
Cortachy Castle is a castellated mansion House at Cortachy, Angus, Scotland, some four miles north of Kirriemuir. The present building dates from the 15th century, preceded by an earlier structure that was owned by the Earls of Strathearn. It was acquired by the Ogilvies in 1473 and substantively...
in Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
on behalf of her eldest son, David, the new earl. In 1902, she became a Lady-in-Waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
to her old friend, the Princess of Wales (as Princess May had become). On the accession of George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
in 1910, Lady Airlie was retained at court as a Lady of the Bedchamber
Lady of the Bedchamber
This is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...
to the-now Queen Mary.
World War I
During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
she supported the Red Cross and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(GBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours list for her services as president of Queen Alexandra's Army Nursing Board
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps is the nursing branch of the British Army and part of the Army Medical Services....
.
However, she suffered losses in her family during the war: her son-in-law, Clement (the eldest son of Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale
Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale
Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale GCVO, KCB , of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was a British diplomat, collector and writer...
), was killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
in 1915, her youngest son, Patrick, was also killed in action in 1917 and her daughter, Mabell, was killed whilst exercising army horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s in 1918.
Literary works
When Lady Ogilvie's eldest son married in 1917, she moved from Cortachy Castle to Airlie CastleAirlie Castle
Airlie Castle is a mansion house near the junction of the Isla and Melgund rivers, 9 kilometres west of Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. A castle was built on the site in c. 1432 and was burnt out in 1640, with a mansion house being built incorporating and on top of some of the ruins in c. 1792–93 and...
, where she began to edit family letters in her possession, for publication. In Whig Society, 1775–1818 (1921) and Lady Palmerston and her Times (1922) were based on the papers of her great-grandmother, Emily (the wife of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper, and later of Prime Minister Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...
) and With the Guards We Shall Go (1933), which detailed her great-uncle, John Jocelyn, 5th Earl of Roden
Earl of Roden
Earl of Roden is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1771 for Robert Jocelyn, 2nd Viscount Jocelyn. This branch of the Jocelyn family descends from the 1st Viscount, prominent Irish lawyer and politician Robert Jocelyn, the son of Thomas Jocelyn, third son of Sir Robert Jocelyn,...
, through the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
.
Later life
In 1953, the countess's employer and life-long friend, Queen Mary, died, and Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
appointed her a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
(GCVO) for her many years of service. She later moved from Airlie Castle to Bayswater Road
Bayswater Road
Bayswater Road is the main road running across the north of Hyde Park, London. To the east Bayswater Road becomes Oxford Street . It is where the fictional upper middle class Forsyte family live in the BBC series the Forsyte Saga...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1955. She died there a few weeks after her ninetieth birthday in 1956.
As a close confidante to Queen Mary, Lady Airlie was a close observer of the fluctuating relationships within the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
, and detailed her reminisences about them in her memoirs, which were unfinished at the time of her death. They were later discovered by Jennifer Ellis, who edited and published them as Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie in 1962.
Styles
- The Honourable Mabell Frances Elizabeth Gore (1866-1884)
- The Lady Mabell Frances Elizabeth Gore (1884-1886)
- The Countess of Airlie (1886-1956)
Source
- Zeepvat, Charlotte - Ogilvy (née Gore), Mabell Frances Elizabeth, countess of Airlie (1866–1956), courtier and literary editor - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography