Throughout the years of her children’s early lives, and the tragic death of daughter Marigold aged just three, Clementine’s interest in public events and politics never wavered. A World War II survivor recalls the London Blitz.Three of the best British historical mysteries.Her younger sister joked that they needed to keep a file to keep track of the proposals she had received: "Discussed", "Answered" and "Pending Decision". Love lifeĪlthough she had been a shy and sensitive child, often in the shadow of her beautiful and outgoing older sister, Clementine blossomed during her teenage years and had no shortage of admirers in London. She also worked in a cousin’s dressmaking business and learned to make her own clothes - a fact which was the cause of much derision in snobbish society circles upon her engagement to Winston, but essential for her to keep up with the demands of dressing for the social season in the lavish Edwardian era. After a brief spell in Germany, she returned to London and gave tutoring in French. Attending a local school, Clemmie shone academically, receiving a special medal from the French Ambassador for her mastery of the language she later attended lectures in the Sorbonne in Paris. Kitty died just a month before her 17th birthday, after which the family returned to England, settling in Hertfordshire. Clemmie and Nellie were sent to stay with their aunt in St Andrew’s in Scotland (the other twin, Bill, was already in boarding school). They led a pleasant life there, until it was marred by tragedy, when Kitty fell ill with typhoid. On the spur of the moment she moved her brood across the English Channel to the Normandy fishing port of Dieppe. It seems this had come to pass without their mother’s knowledge and once she found their whereabouts went to retrieve them and take them back to live with her between London and Seaford, a south coast resort.īy 1899, Blanche was struggling financially and afraid that her husband was about to try and regain custody of the two elder girls. After the upheaval of her parents’ separation, Blanche was left financially badly off, largely dependent on her family for support, and there were bitter disputes over the arrangements for the children.Īt first, the two eldest, Clemmie and Kitty, aged eight and six, were brought to live with their father, then deposited at the home of a nanny, and finally sent to school in Edinburgh, where they were desperately unhappy. The early years of Clemmie’s life were spent mostly in the family’s home in Grosvenor Street in London, along with The Netherton, a small house in Scotland, near Cortachy. However, Blanche also told Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (author of a book called "Secret Memoirs") that Bay Middleton (later Earl Spencer) was the father of her two elder children, born in 18 - and it is thought perhaps Bertie was only the father of twins Bill and Nellie, born in 1888. If it were true, it would place her among a family of fascinating women - Bertie’s granddaughters were the famed, glamorous Mitford sisters. In her biography of her mother, one of Clementine’s children Mary Soames writes that, “Many social gossipers at the time, and a body of latter-day opinion, believe Lord Redesdale to have been Clementine’s father indeed, Blanche herself is said to have told Lady Londonderry just before Clementine’s birth in 1885 that the child she was expecting was "Lord Redesdale’s’.” Eventually, after Hozier found her with a lover in her bedroom, he turned Blanche out on the street and sued for divorce in the autumn of 1891. Contemporary accounts from the time note of scandals concerning Blanche’s infidelities and rumours about multiple lovers, including her own brother-in-law, Bertie Mitford, the First Lord Redesdale, who was married to her younger sister. After five years of marriage, a child finally arrived, although it is highly unlikely that Henry was the father of any of Blanche’s children. It wasn’t long before cracks started to show in the marriage and in particular, Henry was averse to the idea of having children. It wasn’t considered to be a great match by her family - but as she was wayward, and at the ripe old age of 26 considered to be getting on a bit, they consented. Born to an aristocratic background, her father Henry Montague Hozier came from the landed gentry and her mother, Lady Blanche Ogilvy, who became Henry’s second wife, was the eldest daughter of the 10th Earl of Airlie. Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill's unlikely friendshipĬlementine’s background is fascinating.Why Winston Churchill is so fondly remembered In Missouri.
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