Margot Asquith

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Emma Alice Margaret (Margot) Asquith, Countess of Oxford & Asquith (née Tennant) (February 2, 1864–July 28, 1945) was an Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit.

Margot Tennant was born in Peeblesshire, of Scottish and English descent. She was her parents' sixth daughter and eleventh child. Residing at Glen, the country estate of her parents, Charles Clow Tennant and Emma Winsloe, Margot and her sister Laura grew up wild and uninhibited. Margot was a "venturesome child", roaming the moors, climbing to the top of the roof by moonlight, riding her horse up the front steps of the estate house (riding and golf were her life-long passions).

The two girls were inseparable, entering society together in London in 1881. She and Laura became the central female figures of an aristocratic group of intellectuals called "The Souls" ("You are always talking about your souls," complained Lord Charles Beresford, thereby providing them with a suitable label). When Laura married Alfred Lyttleton in 1885, the first part of Margot's life ended. Laura's death in 1888 was a devastating blow from which Margot never fully recovered. As a result, Margot developed chronic insomnia which would plague her for the rest of her life.

On May 10, 1894, Margot married Herbert Henry Asquith and became a "spur to his ambition". She brought him into the glittering social world which he had in no way experienced with his first wife. She also became the unenthusiastic stepmother of five children who were bemused by this creature, so different from their quiet mother. "She flashed into our lives like some dazzling bird of paradise, filling us with amazement, amusement, excitement, sometimes with a vague uneasiness as to what she might do next," wrote Violet Asquith. When Herbert Henry became Prime Minister in 1908, of the first brood of Asquith children only Violet was still at home. It came as something of a relief to Margot when Violet married Maurice Bonham Carter in 1915.

A huge house (which maintained a staff of 14 servants) in Cavendish Square was the Asquith home until they moved to 10 Downing Street. It was in Cavendish Square in 1897 that Margot gave birth to Elizabeth Asquith (Princess Bibesco) and Anthony Asquith in 1902. Elizabeth would marry Prince Antoine Bibesco of Romania in 1919 and become a writer of some note. Anthony would become a film director.

During World War I, Margot's outspokenness led to a public outcry. For example, she visited a German POW camp and she accused her shell-shocked stepson Herbert of being drunk. The negative public and media response may well have contributed to the political downfall of her husband.

In 1920 the mansion in Cavendish Square was sold and after her husband's death in 1928, Margot slowly moved down the residential rungs to 44 Bedford Square before residing in rooms at the Savoy Hotel. Her final home was in Thurloe Place, Kensington. The residence of most importance in the life of the Asquiths was The Wharf in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, built in 1912. This became their weekend home away from home. It is here that gatherings of the literary, artistic and political luminaries would gather.

After her husband's death, Margot was left in near penury and, though she made some money as a writer of numerous autobiographies, her financial position caused her constant concern. Her final overwhelming sadness was the separation from her daughter, Elizabeth, who had been trapped in Bucharest since 1940. Margot schemed for her rescue but Elizabeth died of pneumonia in early 1945 and Margot outlived her by only a few months.

Margot Asquith was known for her outspokenness and acerbic wit. A possibly apocryphal, but typical story has her meeting the American film actress Jean Harlow and correcting Harlow's mispronunciation of her first name — "No, no; the 't' is silent, as in 'Harlow'."