Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston

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Mary Victoria Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, CI (27 May 1870 – 18 July 1906) was a British-American peeress who, by virtue of her marriage to Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India, long held the highest political rank gained by any American woman, Vicereine of India.

Contents 1 In America 2 In England 3 In India 4 Private life 5 Biographies 6 References 7 Further reading

[edit] In America

Mary Victoria Leiter was born in Chicago, the daughter of Levi Leiter, the wealthy co-founder of Field and Leiter dry goods business and later partner in the Marshall Fields retail empire. Her family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1881 and entered the exclusive circle of official society there. They lived for several years in the former home of James G. Blaine on Dupont Circle. She was taught dancing, singing, music and art at home by tutors and learned French language from her French governess. A Columbia University professor taught her history, arithmetic and chemistry. Travel and prolonged residence abroad cultivated her powers of observation and breadth of mental vision at an early age. Her poise and finish made her charming to those with mature and brilliant intellect.

Mary was a striking six feet tall presence with a curving figure. She had large grey eyes set in an oval face, glossy chestnut-brown hair drawn back into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, and delicate hands and feet.

Her debut was in winter of 1888. She was regarded an equal in beauty and breeding, and frequently the peer in manner and intellect, of daughters of better known and longer established families in eastern U.S. society. Prior to her marriage, her closest friend Frances Folsom Cleveland was six years her senior and the wife of a much older President Grover Cleveland.^[2]

[edit] In England

The U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Thomas F. Bayard, introduced Mary to London Society in 1894. She met a young man, George Curzon, a 35-year-old Conservative Member of Parliament who had been representing Southport District for eight years and was heir to the Barony of Scarsdale. The position he had made for himself through his own talents was of more interest to her however, than his eventual inheritance. The high reputation of his writings on the political questions in the East particularly attracted her admiration.

Mary Leiter and George Curzon were married on 22 April 1895 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. by Bishop Talbot assisted by the Rev. Dr. Mackay Smith, the pastor of the church. She played an important role in the reelection of her husband to Parliament that autumn and many thought that his success was due more to the winning smiles and irresistible charm of his wife than to his own speeches. They had 3 daughters, Mary Irene (later Lady Ravensdale), in 1896, Cynthia Blanche (first wife of Sir Oswald Mosley), on 23 August 1898, lastly, Alexandra Naldera, on April 20, 1904 (wife of Edward "Fruity" Metcalfe, the best friend, best man and equerry of Edward VIII); best known as Baba Metcalfe.

[edit] In India

Her husband accepted the position of Viceroy of India and was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston in the summer of 1898 at age 39. On 30 December they arrived in Bombay to the greetings of royal salutes and great excitement. She instantly made an impression of beauty and respect that soon spread all over India. They were greeted in Calcutta a few days later with great enthusiasm. It was estimated that over one hundred thousand people witnessed the magnificent spectacle of their reception at Government House. The Indian poet, Ram Sharma referred to her in his welcome address to Lord Curzon of Kedleston, as:

"A rose of roses bright
A vision of embodied light."

Another declared her to be:

"Like a diamond set in gold
the full moon in a clear autumnal sky."^[3]

In 1901 the "Lady Curzon", a hybrid (R. macrantha x R. rugosa Rubra) variety of Rosa rugosa rose with soft iridescent pink/violet shade 10 cm flowers and a sweet scent, was first raised by Turner.^[4]

In 1902 Lord Curzon organized the Delhi Durbar to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII, "the grandest pageant in history", which created a tremendous sensation. At the state ball Mary wore an extravagant coronation gown, by the House of Worth of Paris, known as the peacock dress, stitched of gold cloth embroidered with peacock feathers with an emerald in each eye and many precious and semi-precious stones sewn into the fabric. The skirt was trimmed with white roses and the bodice with lace. She glittered with diamonds, pearls and precious stones: a huge diamond necklace and a large broach of diamonds and pearls. She wore a tiara crown with a pearl tipping each of its high diamond points. As she walked through the hall the crowd was breathless.^[5][6] This dress is now on display at the Curzon estate, Kedleston Hall.

Lord and Lady Curzon were loudly criticised for the huge expense of this extravagant event and their own personal lifestyle, but their defenders pointed out that no money went out of the country. It all came out of the pockets of the rich and was paid into the hands of the poor. What the government and the native princes and nobles expended in their splendid displays was paid to working people who needed it, and by throwing this large amount into circulation the entire country was benefited.

Lady Curzon designed the exquisetly rich and beautiful coronation robe of Queen Alexandra of England, from gold fabric woven and embroidered in the same factory in Chandni Chauk Delhi where she ordered all the material for her own state gowns. The factory owner said that she had the rarest taste of any woman he knew, and that she was the best dressed woman in the world--an opinion shared by other good judges.

Lady Curzon was an invaluable commercial agent for the manufacturers of the higher class of fabrics and art objects in India. She made many of them fashionable in Calcutta and other Indian cities and in London, Paris and the capitals of Europe. She placed orders for her friends and strangers. She assisted the silk weavers, embroiderers and other artists to adapt their designs, patterns and fabrics to the requirements of modern fashions. She wore Indian fabrics. She kept several of the best artists in India busy with orders and soon saw the results of her efforts revive skilled arts that were almost forgotten.

Lady curzon was tutored in Urdu by the Mohyal patriarch Bakhshi Ram Dass Chhibber.^[7]

Progressive medical reforms were initiated by English women in India under the leadership of the Marchioness of Dufferin and Lady Curzon by supplying women doctors and hospitals for women. There is a Lady Curzon Hospital in Bangalore.

William Eleroy Curtis's dedication of his book "Modern India" is: "To Lady Curzon, An ideal American woman"^[8]

On 04 November 1902 Lady Curzon wrote from Viceroy's Camp, Simla to Lady Randolph Churchill advising her on the appropriate headgear to wear in Delhi, saying that she is looking forward to seeing her and that she will not need an ayah in addition to her maid.^[9]

In 1903 she sailed on a yacht from Karachi for a tour of the Persian Gulf with Lord Curzon, Ignatius Valentine Chirol, young Winston Churchill and other notable guests.

In 1904, Lady Curzon traveled by train with Lord Curzon to Dhaka and toured the Shahbagh area in a fleet of Dechamp Tonneau- model 1902 cars. (photo: Fritz Kapp)

Lady Curzon learned about the Great One-horned Rhinoceros of Kaziranga from her tea-planter friends and wanted to see them. In the winter of 1904 she visited the Kaziranga area,^[10] and saw some of their hoof marks but was disappointed not to see any rhinoceros. It was told that the noted Assamese animal tracker Balaram Hazarika showed Lady Curzon around Kaziranga and impressed upon her the urgency of its conservation.^[11] Concerned about the dwindling numbers of rhinos, she asked her husband to take necessary action to save the rhinoceros, which he did. The Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest was thus created. This was later developed into the Kaziranga National Park.

[edit] Private life

The Curzons' youngest daughter, Alexandra Naldera, was conceived in July 1903 at Naldehra 25 km from Shimla,^[12] perhaps after a high altitude game of Golf,.^[13] She was born March 20, 1904.^[14] and best known as "Baba", an Indian name for baby or little one. In 1925 she married Major Edward Dudley Metcalfe, the best friend and equerry of Edward VIII.^[15] She later became a mistress of Oswald Mosley, her sister Cynthia's husband, as did their stepmother, Grace Curzon^[16][17] Her oldest sister Irene had a short affair with Mosley before Cynthia married him.

Lady Curzon was never able to give Curzon the son and heir he desperately desired. Her demanding social responsibilities, tropical climate, a prolonged near fatal infection following miscarriage, and fertility-related surgery eroded her health. Convalescent trips to England failed to heal her. When they returned to England after Curzon's resignation in August 1905, her health was failing. She died July 18, 1906 at home in Carlton House Terrace #1, Westminster, London, 36 years old.^[18][19]

It is said that Lady Curzon after, having seen the Taj Mahal on a moonlit night, exclaimed in her bewilderment that she was ready to embrace an immediate death if someone promised to erect such a memorial on her grave.^[20]

Following Lady Curzon's death, in 1906, Lord Curzon had a memorial chapel built, in his late wife's honour, attached to the parish church at Kedleston Hall. Lady Curzon is buried, with her husband, in the family vault beneath it. The design of the chapel, by G F Bodley , does not resemble the Taj Mahal, but is in the decorated Gothic style. It was completed in 1913. ^[21]

In the chapel Curzon expressed his real grief at his wife's premature death by charging the sculptor, Sir Bertram Mackennal, to create a marble effigy for her tomb which: "expressed as might be possible in marble, the pathos of his wife's premature death and to make the sculpture emblematic of the deepest emotion." ^[22] Later, Curzon's own effigy was added to lie beside that of his wife's, as his remains do in the vault beneath. Curzon's second wife chose to be buried in the churchyard outside.

[edit] Biographies

• "The Viceroy's Daughters, The Lives of the Curzon Sisters", By Anne de Courcy, Harper Collons Publishers, 2003, Price: $14.95 ISBN 0-06-093557-X^[23](biography) not cited. retrieved from publisher 3/14/2007
• Nicolson Nigel, "Lady Curzon", Harper & Row, New York, 1977. ISBN 0-29-777390-9^[24] (biography) not cited.
• Bradley John ed, (1986) "Lady Curzon's India: Letters of a Viceriene", Weidenfeld & Nicolson., London, ISBN 0-29-778701-2

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Nicola J. Thomas, "Broadening the Boundaries of Biography and Geography: Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India 1898 – 1905", Journal of Historical Geography, 2004
• Nicola J. Thomas, "American Vicereine of India", in: David Lambert and Alan Lester, eds., "Imperial Lives across the Empire" Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
• Nicola J. Thomas, "Embodying Empire: Dressing the Vicereine, Lady Curzon 1898 – 1905", Under review in Cultural Geographies