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Sunday 29 April 2018

Mary Russell: The Flying Duchess, Nurse & Animal Lover of Woburn


MISS MARY DU CAURROY TRIBE
Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, was a renowned ornithologist, cat breeder and animal lover. She also set up hospitals and worked as a Nurse during the First World War. Late in her life, she took up aviation, and made record breaking flights to both Karachi and Cape Town.

Born Mary Du Caurroy Tribe on 26 September 1865 at Stockbridge, Hampshire, she was the daughter of Walter Harry Tribe, Anglican Archdeacon of Lahore and his wife, Sophie Lander.

Mary spent her childhood in England living with an aunt. She was educated along with her sister at Cheltenham Ladies College then left school at sixteen to join her parents in India.

The freedom of the lifestyle after Victorian England delighted her: she rode astride when there was no-one to see her, and wandered for miles across India on horseback. She became skilled with the gun and was one of the best shots in the hunting expeditions organized at Lahore. She played tennis and cricket, and attended spectacular balls or “durbars”. 
 
Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford
She fell in love with a young army officer but that first romance did not last. She then moved with her family to Simla in the heart of the British Raj, and was invited to a party at Government House where she met her future husband, Lord Herbrand Russell, who was seven years her senior.

After a brief separation, during which Herbrand wrote Mary a series of charming love letters, their love grew deeper. Their engagement soon followed and was announced at a Viceregal Ball at Simla.  An eyewitness recalled the scene: 

 "As we entered the long, narrow room where we danced, at the end of the dais stood Lord and Lady Dufferin, and by them were Miss Mary Tribe and Lord Herbrand. Before we were told, we could all guess what had happened. The natural and striking beauty of Miss Tribe was enhanced by happiness, and we all of us, for the most part serving and living in India, rejoiced in her happiness and felt proud of her."  

Mary in her younger years.
Although Herbrand was well received within Mary’s family, the Duke & Duchess of Bedford, more commonly known as "The Icebergs" within the family, did not approve of Mary. As far as they were concerned, she was only an Archdeacon’s daughter and was somewhat below their social class. 

Despite this, the couple were married on January 31, 1888 in Barrackpore, with the wedding breakfast hosted under a famous banyan tree in the garden there. A honeymoon tour through India, Egypt and on the continent followed, before returning to England. After returning from India, they lived at first in Scotland and it was here that their only child, Hastings William Sackville Russell, -later the 12th Duke of Bedford - was born on December 21, 1888. It seems to have been a traumatic birth, possibly followed by post-natal depression. Mary was either left unable to bear more children or, having produced the required male heir, she decided not to risk any further pregnancies.

Hastings Russell,12th Duke of Bedford
Hastings had governesses and tutors, and was close to his father. Mary seems to have had little chance to develop a proper relationship with her son, because Herbrand and his father, Francis, appear to have excluded her from her son's early upbringing. Hastings and Herbrand later had a major falling out when Hastings became a pacifist rather than follow in his father’s military footsteps. Mary's relationship with her son was the only conspicuous failure of her lifetime.

Deprived of playing the role of Mother, she turned instead to a series of different activities, each undertaken with such single minded determination that she excelled at all of them. Mary became the finest woman shot in England, with only a handful of men in front of her. Shooting and fishing were high on her list of favourite recreations. Her shooting record for one day was 200 pheasants, while on another occasion she landed eighteen salmon weighing 200 pounds.

Mary in her canoe
Mary loved nature and being outdoors.  She climbed mountains, canoed alone down rivers and sailed to remote and inaccessible places. She skated superbly, took spectacular photographs and painted beautifully. She was a highly skilled mechanic and also made her own radios.

She founded a boys' bird watching club and could train animals to do almost anything, with the exception of her spoiled but adored Pekingese, Che Foo. She trained one of the Duke’s horses to shake hands and bow, and also to drop, roll over and feign death.

The Duchess was an avid collector of birds. One of her prized pets was a rare rescued swan named Sabina, who ferociously attacked any one that ventured near her pond. She was no match for Mary Russell. The Duchess wrote in her diary, “I made a stand and gave Sabina to understand that in my case at least such behaviour could not be tolerated.” 

Sabina followed the Duchess around asking for kisses and Mary could even pick her up. She haunted the terrace in front of the house, watching for the Duchess. A male swan was drafted into service as a mate for her. Sabina tolerated him, but her first love was always the Duchess.

Mary became an ornithologist of international renown and took a particular interest in bird migration. Between 1909 and 1914 she spent much time on Fair Isle, often in the company of William Eagle Clarke. Her journal, A Bird-watcher's Diary, was privately published in 1938 after her death.
Although she did not publish any scientific work, she was very capable of doing so. She often visited the British Museum’s Natural History Department where she discoursed with experts. She passed on her interest in ornithology to her son, who kept and bred Australian parrots.

Woburn Abbey
In March 1893, Herbrand Russell had inherited his childless brother's titles. The Dukedom brought with it Woburn Abbey, seat of the Dukes of Bedford for over 300 years. The family also owned Russell Square, Bedford Square, the larger portion of Bloomsbury and the whole of Covent Garden in London.

At Woburn Abbey a footman dressed in rose coloured livery stood behind every chair at meals and so many staff were employed in the house and on the estate that they had their own football and cricket leagues and played inter-departmental matches.

Woburn Abbey
Herbrand Russell ran his empire with all the administrative skill he had learnt in the British army and wrote a book on how to run an estate. Although he maintained the village of Chenies for his staff and kept rents low, they were hired by the week and were subject to very strict rules. If dismissed, they lost their home immediately.  In her new role as duchess, Mary did only what was required of her. Miss Green, who had come to Woburn first as governess to Hastings, eventually assisted Herbrand in the running of the estate, remaining at Woburn for the rest of her life.


As well as being a bird lover, The Duchess of Bedford was also a great cat fancier. In the 1890s and early 1900s, she owned some of the finest Siamese cats in the world. For several years she owned a cat named Goblin, as famous in its day as Lady Marcus Beresford's "blues." She was an active member of the Ladies Kennel Association and President of the National Cat Club. At the 1899 Ladies Kennel Association cat and dog show at Holland House she presented two fine silver models of kittens as prizes specially designed by her grace. She also designed a charming milk saucer with the head of a cat in relief ornamenting the centre.

Goblin was a neutered seal point Siamese born in 1888 and is described in The Duchess Of Bedford’s Pets, By Louis Wain in Windsor Magazine:

The first impression a stranger receives on viewing the great home of the Russell’s is a feeling of absolute repose. Everything combines to produce this effect — the fine unpretentious front, severe in classical massing, backed by elms and the famous Woburn beeches of immense growth and immemorial age, the delightful park-land lying around, the graceful deer wandering undisturbed among the- quiet glades, all speak an atmosphere of eternal peace. Passing through the gateway, embedded in firs and laurels, a short walk brings one close to Woburn Great House ; but before one even enters the massive old hall, one encounters some of the many pets to which the charming mistress of Woburn is so devoted.

Once indoors, we pass down the scarlet corridors, hung with many famous family portraits, to the Duchess of Bedford’s sitting room, which, by courtesy, is also the cats’ boudoir, and here we are introduced to a few of the more distinguished members of a very important section of the family circle. Curled up in a cosy arm-chair is a smug, contented-looking, long-haired, half-bred cat, who, despite his mixed ancestry, has caught nature in her kindliest moments, and, as the result, rejoices in a perfect wealth of silver grey fur. His name is the most unromantic, “Tommy,” but his manners are expressive more of the Bubastian deity, who looks down upon all cats as minioned subjects from among the mystic gods. Perhaps in years to come — far beyond the present seven of his earthly existence — he may pass into the realms of memory’s fantasy, as much a deity in his own right as any earthly monument can make him, for he comes first among his peers in his mistress’s affections, and his loss would be a sad blow to her.


On a fur rug a really royal Siamese cat sits, blinking in the glow and glint of the fire. His glossy coat is of a cream and mouse-brown colour, while his eyes are of a pale-blue mauve. It would be difficult to find “Goblin’s” match at a show or elsewhere in this country ; small wonder that he is a popular sprite. Yet his grave, innocent expression of countenance is a huge fraud, for at any moment he is ready to sacrifice the whole of his dignity at one fell swoop for a romp and a scramble, despite the four years which he numbers.Bogie,” a whole-colour, very dark-brown cat, is likewise a Siamese, and a vixen into the bargain. She has a philosophy of her own in regard to the treatment of furniture, and will play sad havoc with silk, damask, and even “down” cushions when she gets the chance. Consequently she is usually banished to an upper storey, or the grass lawn, whereon to work her wicked wiles.

A famous reddish-yellow, long-haired tabby — a mere big, overgrown baby of a cat — sits near the fire, spooning and purring for notice, as is the way with those unconscionable cats who crave for notoriety. Very celebrated is “Bill,” whose donor was Lord William Beresford, and hence to all his friends and familiars he is universally known as “Bill Beresford.”

Other cats are frequently permitted to join the house or garden party, but some, alas ! are by nature so indigenously and irretrievably wicked that their sojourn in polite society has to be of very limited duration. “Bigit,” for example, is on the roll of the tabooed ; he is a sullen Siamese, who lives happily enough in exile, where twenty-five guinea pheasants are unknown, and the larder door balks his sportive inclinations, and where his liberties are entirely circumscribed to the domestication of home life alone.

Before finally leaving the cats, mention must be made of their appropriate surroundings. The walls of their comfortable room are hung with a happy selection of pictures, among which one specially notices Landseer’s “Head of a Retriever holding a pheasant;” a bright treasure of perfect fur, by Madame Ronner — one of her prettiest cat paintings ; and a large canvas of two fox terriers watching a snarling kitten.”

Bogie may have been an early Burmese/Chestnut Oriental type. As well as 5 Siamese cats (including Goblin, Bigit, Bogie and Marko), she had black-and-white shorthair (Napoleon), a half-Persian (or half-Angora) brown tabby Longhair, a silver tabby Persian (Fritz), several longhair blue “Russian cats” and a red Tabby Persian (Bill).

In 1905 she reportedly had two large tiger cats that dozed on the fireside rug at her home in Eaton Square. She seldom travelled anywhere without a few dainty wicker baskets, holding her favourite cats which had their own rooms at Woburn, and also in her residences in Scotland and London. At Woburn they had covered exercise courts arranged with trees and shrubs.

According to an article printed in various American Newspapers in 1901:

 “It is a question whether the Duchess likes dogs or cats best. The dogs at Woburn live like fighting cocks, but the cats have a most luxurious room practically given up to them. Her Grace Is president of the society organized by Chinese Gordon’s sister-in-law, which runs in London a remarkable boarding-house for well-to-do cats and a lodging-house for poverty-stricken ones, and is represented by two or three exhibits at almost every cat show that takes place. The Duchess was present at this year’s dinner of the men who sell cats' meat in London and made a kindly little speech in which she begged the men to be charitable to the stray cats that they encountered on their rounds. But it is for her private zoo that the Duchess is best known. The zoo is at Woburn, too, and in the rarity of some of its inmates it surpasses the Zoological Gardens in London, of which the Duke of Bedford Is presiding officer.”

”Nor has the Duchess of Bedford ever shown a cat, though, to help the fortunes of Puss, she has given the costliest of prizes, has subscribed and helps to maintain a bond fide Cat Home. In the movement to secure better treatment for waif and stray cats, the Duchess also promoted and largely paid for a most successful supper some two years ago for the cats’-meat men who were, on the occasion, so good impressed by her Grace’s tactful remarks, her appeal to their kindlier manhood, that we can believe what is freely stated all over the slums of London, that since that eventful supper night the cats’-meat men have never allowed a cat on their beat to want a bite, or a little touch of kindness. The Duchess of Bedford is not an exhibitor from dislike of cat shows, for she realises that these fixtures are a great protection to the cat, making Puss of such com¬mercial value that its happiness and safety in living are assured, and she gives her patronage to the leading exhibitions of cats.” – Boudoir Magazine, 1904

The Tatler of 13th July 1904 also mentions her cats:

 “The cat, Napoleon, is the latest feline arrival at Woburn, and though he looks fat and a monarch every inch of him now was a starved waif and stray when he was taken to Woburn by a poor woman who wished to secure a good home for the scraggy scavenger. The duchess consented to receive him, and Napoleon selected the Woburn stables, which he jealously guards, and if Fritz or any other cat presents his face within sight of Napoleon’s domains the cat emperor makes a spirited attack and routs the intruder oft" the boundary of what he considers his exclusive sphere. Fritz, the Persian, is the personal pet of the Duchess of Bedford. Since the death of Goblin, who was the elect of Woburn felines, Fritz has lost the sullen jealousy and the skulking way of entering the rooms which from fear of Goblin pouncing on him he had in the latter’s lifetime.”

In November 1927, the London Times carried an account of the Siamese Cat Show held in Kensington in September; the best exhibit in show was a male kitten, Marko, bred by Mrs. Ellerby and bought by the Duchess of Bedford. King Kesho, a famous Siamese sire in the 1890s until his death in 1897 claimed descent, in part, from the Duchess of Bedford's cats.

Among other animals, the estate at Woburn included the rare Pere David’s deer. The couple’s worn out carriage horses also found an easy retirement there. A great number of her animal photos, taken at Woburn Abbey, were used to illustrate “The Living Animals of The World.”

Some of Mary's homes
As well as Woburn, Mary was greatly fond of her Swiss cottage known as Endsleigh, near Tavistock in Devon. Cottage is a bit of an understatement – it was hugely expensive and set in a large estate but despite her position, she had simple tastes. 

The couple were less known socially than any other pair of their rank and it was said that the duke was a shy man, and one who took himself most seriously. They appeared only rarely in their private box at the Royal Opera House or at the skating rink at Knightsbridge. Unlike many of her station, who held “at homes” and “took tea” with their peers, Mary was not one for the high society life. She donned the tiara and trappings of a duchess only when required for social duties.

Mary was an active member of the Women's Tax Resistance League, a group associated with the Women’s Social and Political Union that used tax resistance to protest the disenfranchisement of women during the British women's suffrage movement.

Interested in Medical practice, Mary started a cottage hospital in a house on Leighton Street which had a small number of rooms and beds. Then in 1903 she actually built the cottage hospital, which she designed herself on Leighton Street, called Maryland, it is still there today.

Mary as a Nurse during WW1
On the outbreak of the First World War, Mary converted buildings at Woburn into a second hospital, working with such speed that the first war wounded patients were admitted within six weeks of the declaration of War. She took over full responsibility for the administration, while the Duke paid all the bills. Soon the hospital was being cited everywhere as an example of how a hospital should be run. The War Office had so much confidence in the Duchess’s hospital that wounded soldiers were sent to Woburn directly from the Front. 

Not content with her administrative role, she became a nurse of exceptional calibre. She acted as theatre sister for almost every operation, in time she became a very accomplished theatre nurse and in some cases did minor operations herself. She didn't expect her staff to do anything in hospital that she wouldn't do herself. So she'd be up at 5.45 in the morning scrubbing floors and getting the operating theatres ready for the surgeons.

Duchess of Bedford in later years
It was during this period, that she employed Bridon Glendenning, who was a very competent surgeon, to run the hospital for her. Knowing of her genuine interest in the field, he encouraged her to train in radiography and radiology. Taking his suggestion to heart, she started to work in the radiotherapy field, using radiotherapy to actually cure people rather than just take photos.

In January 1918 the duchess was awarded the Royal Red Cross in the second Associate grade, for her services to wartime nursing at Woburn Auxiliary Hospital. She was later appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1928 and was also Dame of Grace of the Order of Saint John (DGStJ) and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of the Imperial College (FLS)

Duchess of Bedfod in flying outfit
In the 1920’s, at the age of 63, the Duchess became interested in aviation.  She claimed it gave her some relief from her constant tinnitus, although she eventually became totally deaf. She was more than twice the age of most of those flying at the time but she found the exhilaration and the danger totally intoxicating. She turned a paddock at Woburn Abbey into a landing field and did her errands to nearby towns by plane.

On 2 August 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles from Lympne Airport to Karachi returning to Croydon Airport in eight days.  She was accompanied in her single-engine Fokker F.VII Princess Xenia -which she renamed "The Spider" for its tenacity - by her personal pilot Captain C. D. Barnard and mechanic Robert Little. 

On 8 April 1930 she made her first solo flight, in her DH.60G Moth (G-AAAO). 

Mary, with Barnard and Little
On 10 April 1930 she embarked on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to Cape Town, in "The Spider", flying 9,000 miles in 91 hours and twenty minutes over 10 days, again with Barnard and Little.

Barnard was keen to break records in the air and had little difficulty in persuading the Duchess to support and accompany him on these attempts. He took an almost perverse delight in encountering, and sometimes seeming to create, terrifying situations. He would run out of petrol in places where landing appeared impossible, be overcome in the air, together with Mary and the engineer, by carbon monoxide fumes or encourage Mary to lean out of the open door of the plane to photograph Gibraltar, just as they were being sucked into a tornado. 

In those days flying was in its infancy so they'd have to stop off to refuel on runways made
of sand. They'd be out in the middle of nowhere and if something went wrong they'd have to wait days for a part. Her trip to Cape Town had been interrupted by a broken oil line that forced her to land at Sofia, Bulgaria. On one of her flights they'd been flying over a desert area and it was only when they landed that they realized they had two bullet holes in the aircraft. They hadn't realized at the time that they'd been shot at by people on the ground.

In 1934 - and again in 1935 – this time with her new co-pilot F/Lt R. C. Preston in a de Havilland Puss Moth G-ABOC, the Duchess made extensive flights from England to the Western Sahara and Northern Nigeria.

Flight Lt. Preston was the pilot who plotted the course for her last flight. She had done 199 hours and four minutes and she had to do another 56 minutes of flying to reach her 200 hours of flying time. The duchess was concerned they would not renew her pilot's license because of her deafness and because she was, by then, 71.

The Flying Duchess
In March 1937 - three months before Amelia Earhart's death - the Duchess left Woburn Abbey in a DH.60GIII Moth Major (G-ACUR) , heading towards Cambridgeshire. She had sufficient fuel for 3 hours of flying and intended to fly over the flooded River Ouse area.

She had set out on a dark afternoon, in weather conditions which were deteriorating rapidly. Soon after she took off, a snow storm came up. The navigation system she was using had caused problems for other pilots even without the bad visibility conditions of that day. When she hadn't returned after an hour and a half the duke became very concerned and contacted the chief of Bedfordshire police who put out calls to neighbouring constabularies.

Although she knew the terrain well, it was feared she may have been disoriented by the wide floods or tried to set down on a flooded field. Police searched Monks woods, 13 miles from Peterborough where a gamekeeper had seen a low-flying plane. He quickly lost sight of it due to the blinding snow and he heard the engine stop. He believed the plane had come down, though he didn’t hear a crash.

On March 25, 1937 fishermen dragged up a wooden strut in their nets. Flight Lieut. Preston and officials of the de Havilland firm did not believe it was part of the Duchess’s Moth plane. Royal Air Force planes joined the search over the fenlands of East Anglia, criss-crossing the terrain. On the slim chance she was afloat at sea, and the government radio ordered all nearby ships to be on the lookout.

 
Nearly 100 Royal Air Force Planes and 2000 searchers on the ground failed to find any trace of her. Police dragged the lakes on the Duke’s 20,000 acre estate in case the plane had come down in the grounds. Although she knew the terrain well, even her husband, who answered all phone calls personally from his bedroom at Woburn Abbey, accepted that she had lost her way while flying through a snowstorm over flooded fenland. 

On March 26th, hope of her survival was abandoned. On March 29th, another piece of wood washed up near Hunstanton, Norfolk, but it was not from her plane.

Finally, on April 2nd, 1937 an aeroplane strut washed up at great Yarmouth was definitely identified as coming from her plane. On 14th May, a body of a woman in a flying suit was found in the English Channel, by a train ferry, five miles out from Dover, but Flight Lieut. Preston said there was no chance of the body being the Duchess - there were quite a few daring female aviators lost over the sea in those early years.

The theory was that she had flown out over the coast by mistake, ran out of fuel and went down in the North Sea off Great Yarmouth - but there was also some speculation that it could have been suicide. She had been ill about 10 days previously and had been subject to fits of dizziness, according to a friend. She was also worried, too, about the future of the hospital, as the duke was becoming aware of limitations on his spending power.

Her body was never recovered and her beloved husband died just three years after.

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