Lucy, Lady Houston
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Lucy, Lady Houston, DBE (April 8, 1857 — December 29, 1936), born Fanny Lucy Radmall, was an English benefactor, philanthropist, adventuress and patriot.
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[edit] Early life
As a young woman she was a professional dancer, a chorus girl known as 'Poppy'. She eloped at the age of sixteen to Paris with a brewer, Frederick Gretton, who left his wife. They had a tumultuous partnership and when he died in 1882, he left her £6,000 per year for life.
In 1883 she married Sir Theodore Brinckman (b. 1862 - d. 1937), but they divorced in 1895, after a long separation. Her second marriage was to a bankrupt, George Byron, 9th Baron Byron, in 1901. He died in 1917. During this time she was an active suffragette. In 1919 Lucy, then Lady Byron, was appointed Dame for her support of a home for nurses who had served in the First World War.
[edit] Marriage to Sir Robert Houston
Her third and final marriage, on December 12, 1924, was to Sir Robert Paterson Houston, 1st Bt., member of parliament for West Toxteth, and a shipping magnate. Robert Houston was regarded as a hard, ruthless, unpleasant bachelor[citation needed] as per the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. They lived as tax exiles on the island of Jersey.
When Sir Robert showed her his will, Lucy tore it up telling him that one million pounds was not good enough. Sir Robert then suffered a series of mental disorders and Lucy employed a food-taster to ensure that he was not being poisoned. Even so Sir Robert mysteriously died on his yacht Liberty on 14 April 1926, leaving his widow roughly £5.5 million.
She was described as paranoid with religious delusions and declared mentally unfit to manage her own affairs, but she left Jersey in the Liberty. She then negotiated with the British Government the payment of £1.6 million in death duties. Her political opinions were extreme (she supported Mussolini) and she paid for nine by-election meetings by the British National Government to be disrupted[citation needed].
[edit] The Schneider Trophy
Today Lady Houston is perhaps best known for her gifts in support of British aviation. In 1931 she donated £100,000 to Supermarine, allowing them to win the Schneider Trophy in that year.
The Royal Air Force's entry for the 1931 race for the trophy was hindered by political opposition. On January 15, 1931, the Air Ministry refused a last minute request by the Royal Aero Club for funds for an entry. The Ministry also forbade the use of the aircraft that competed in the 1929 race; forbade RAF pilots who were trained to fly these seaplanes, to take part; and said that it would not police the race course in 1931 in the busy shipping lanes in the Solent.
The Royal Aero Club sent a statement to the Cabinet on January 22, 1931, offering to raise £100,000, if the Government would rescind the Air Ministry's decrees on planes, pilots and policing.
Many newspapers backing the opposition Conservative Party wanted to put pressure on Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. One newspaper sent a telegram to MacDonald stating that: "To prevent the socialist government from being spoilsports, Lady Houston will be responsible for all extra expenses beyond what Sir Philip Sassoon (President of the Royal Aero Club) says can be found, so that Great Britain can take part in the race for the Schneider trophy."
The gift gave Lucy Houston an opportunity to attack the Labour government, with the declaration: "Every true Briton would rather sell his last shirt than admit that England could not afford to defend herself." The Prime Minister could not ignore the patriotic fervour that she generated and so yielded.
There were only nine months to prepare and so Supermarine's designer Reginald Mitchell could only update the existing airframes. Rolls-Royce increased the power of the R-Type engine by 400 hp to 2,300 hp. The improved aircraft Supermarine S.6B won the trophy, though the technical achievement is slightly tarnished by the fact two S6Bs and an S6 were the only participants. (One S6B later broke the air speed record.)
Lady Houston's gift provided a valuable impetus to the development of an engine that would ultimately become the Rolls-Royce Merlin which played a vital role in the Second World War in particular the Battle of Britain. The lessons learned in building racing seaplanes also helped Reginald Mitchell to develop the Supermarine Spitfire.
[edit] Later events
In 1932 she offered to give £200,000 to strengthen Britain's Army & Navy. The Government refused.
She put a large illuminated sign on her yacht saying: "DOWN WITH MACDONALD THE TRAITOR!". In a telegram to the Prime Minister she said:
- "I alone have dared to point out the dire need for air defence of London. You have muzzled others who have deplored this shameful neglect. You have treated my patriotic gesture with a contempt such as no other government would have been guilty of toward a patriot."
In 1933 she financed the Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, in which aircraft flew over the summit of Everest for the first time. This was to show opposition to granting independence to India.
Her letters were usually written on coloured paper with violet ink. She was so upset by the Abdication Crisis in 1936 that she stopped eating and died of a heart attack on December 29, 1936, at the age of 79.
No legal will was found, so the money (£1.5million) was informally passed to a friend.
