Lady Lucy Houston DBE : Aviation Champion and Mother of the Spitfire / Miles Macnair ; with a foreword by Lord Craig Marshal of the Royal Air Force, GCB, OBE
xiv, 248 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations
Type:
Biography
Biographies
Place:
England
Date:
2016
Notes:
NASMAIN copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment.
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Beginning at the End -- ch. 2 The Dancing Nymph and a Teenage Love Affair -- ch. 3 The Toast of London and Mrs Brinckman -- ch. 4 Lady Byron, a Suffragist from Hampstead -- ch. 5 The Angel of Mercy -- ch. 6 A Swing to the Right and Seducing the `Robber Baron' -- ch. 7 Plots and Persecution -- ch. 8 The Legacy of Versailles and the Fascination of Fascism -- ch. 9 Winston Churchill and Lady Bountiful -- ch. 10 A Whisper of Mortality -- ch. 11 Wings Over the Water -- the Schneider Trophy -- ch. 12 The National Government, Squadrons of Planes for London and an Eccentric Clergyman -- ch. 13 Oswald Mosley Rejected and Lucy Gets her New Man -- ch. 14 Wings Over the Himalayas -- the Houston-Mount Everest Expedition -- ch. 15 The Saturday Review -- ch. 16 Domestic Matters and More Racehorses -- ch. 17 Lord Lloyd and the India Bill -- ch. 18 `Our Champion Hoare', the Abyssinian Crisis and the General Election of 1935 -- ch. 19 Patriotism, Charity and the Prince of Wales -- ch. 20 King Edward VIII, the Engagement Ring and a Broken Heart -- ch. 21 Epitaphs and What Happened Afterwards
Summary:
The life-story of Lady Lucy Houston DBE must surely be one of the most romantic and dramatic epics of the last one hundred and fifty years, yet nowadays she is a 'woman unknown'. She had a beautiful face, a graceful figure and a sharp intelligence, and over the years she would exploit her charismatic charm, first as a teenager to entice a wealthy lover, and subsequently to lead three husbands to the altar. She was an ardent and productive campaigner for women's rights, conducting outstanding works of charity during the Great War, such as providing a convalescent home for nurses returning from the front line. In recognition of these endeavours, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1917. After the death of her third husband, a known misogynist, 'under mysterious circumstances', she was temporarily certified mad, but his Will was to make her the richest woman in England. During the rest of her eventful and eccentric lifetime, she spent her fortune on a vast number of charitable causes, whilst waging a feisty political campaign against weak British politicians of all parties. But her greatest legacy arose from her steadfast support for the Royal Air Force, whose finances were being crippled. She funded the 1931 Schneider Trophy Race as well as the Houston Everest Expedition of 1933. This funding had a crucial bearing on the development of the Merlin engine and the Spitfire aircraft, essentially kick starting the chain of events that would ultimately end in allied victory during the Battle of Britain.
