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| 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”.
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| 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."
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.”
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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)
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| 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).
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| 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
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.
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| 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.
