Aristocrats Gallery

Lord Desborough with remaining son, Ivo Grenfell

William Henry Grenfell, Lord Desborough (1855-1945), pictured at his home, Taplow court near Maidenhead with his remaining son, the Hon. Ivo Grenfell, and his daughter, the Hon. Imogen Grenfell. Lord Desborough's two eldest sons, Julian and Gerald, had both been killed in 1915. Desborough was a well-known sportsman, distinctive at a height of 6 feet 5 inches. He rowed for Oxford in the 1877 Boat Race and was President of the British team at the 1908 Olympic Games. He was also a Liberal politician and served in a number of public offices during his lifetime. He converted Taplow Court into a a rest home for Red Cross nurses during the war. Ivo was killed in a car accident in 1926 and so the peerage died out with Lord Desborough. Date: 1916

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Lady Loughborough (Sheila Chisholm) with her baby

Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm, daughter of Harry Chisholm of Sydney, NSW, Australia married in 1915 Francis Edward Scudamore St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough, eldest son of the fifth Earl of Rosslyn who was serving in the King's Royal Rifles at the time this picture was taken. The marriage suffered from Loughborough's drinking and gambling and the couple divorced in 1926. In 1920, Albert, Duke of York, the future King George VI was linked romantically with Sheila who, at that point, was still a married woman. She married secondly in 1928, Sir John Millbanke, eleventh baronet (d. 1947) and thirdly, Prince Dimitri Romanoff of Russia in 1954. She died in 1969. Pictured in The Tatler with her elder son, Anthony Hugh Francis Harry St. Clair-Erskine, the future 6th Earl of Rosslyn (born 18th May 1917, died 1977). Date: 1917

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Front cover of The Tatler - The Duchess of Sutherland

Front cover portrait of Her Grace The Duchess of Sutherland, 27th October 1909. Described as one of the most beautiful members of the aristocracy, and the wife of one of the greatest landowners in England. Born Lady Eileen Gwladys Butler to the 7th Earl of Lanesborough on 3 November 1891, she was married on 11 April 1912 to George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Marquess of Stafford, who succeeded his father as 5th Duke of Sutherland in 1913, whereupon Eileen became Duchess of Sutherland. In World War I, she was a Red Cross nurse. She was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Mary from 1916 to 1921. She died in 1943, aged 51. Date: 27th October 1909

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans