Few defied expectations of women as completely as Edith, Lady Londonderry who lived at Mount Stewart. ‘A young hound running riot’, is how a fiercely anti-suffrage Theresa, Marchioness of Londonderry, dubbed her wayward, pro-suffrage daughter-in-law.
Edith moved in powerful circles and used her influence to empower others, including as Colonel-in-Chief of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve during the First World War. Not content with how the Reserve was run, Edith formed a breakaway organisation – the Women’s Legion in 1915. Three years later the Legion was providing female cooks for the military, ambulance drivers, mechanics, clerks and canteen workers.
Pushing boundaries
Edith even dared suggest that women wear breeches instead of skirts for farm work. She became the first Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1917 in recognition of her war efforts.
Edith campaigned for suffrage for what she called ‘duly qualified’ women. Edith influenced her political husband, who in 1910 is said to have pushed the government to discuss women’s suffrage.
Shaping the gardens of Mount Stewart