Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon

Helen Venetia Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon (née Duncombe) (1866 - 1954) was a British peeress, socialite and diarist.

Helen was the daughter of William Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham, of Ryedale and Mabel Violet Graham, born at their estate of Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England. She and her sister, Hermione, were renowned as leading beauties in their circle.

Helen married Sir Edgar Vincent, then a governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Constantinople on September 24, 1890. In 1899 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Exeter. Lady Helen, in that period, was "the most celebrated hostess of her age and was 'by reason of her outstanding beauty, intelligence and charm, one of the most resplendent figures'".[1] She was associated with "the Souls", a salon of noted intellectuals of the day which included Arthur Balfour, George Curzon, Henry James and Edith Wharton. She is believed to have been the model for the characters of Lady Thisbe Crowborough in Max Beerbohm's story Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton in Seven Men (1919) and for Lady Irene Silvester in Maurice Baring's story "A Luncheon Party" (1925).[1]

In 1904 during an extended visit to Venice, Lady Helen's portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent. That work is now part of the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.[2]

During World War I Lady Helen trained as a nurse anaesthetist and treated thousands of patients. She accompanied her husband (created 1st Baron D'Abernon in 1914[3]) as he served on the Interallied Mission to Poland and as the British Ambassador to the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s. During this time the Baroness kept a diary of her experiences, parts of which were published in 1946 as Red Cross and Berlin Embassy, 1915-1926: Extracts from the Diaries of Viscountess D'Abernon.[4]

At the end of his diplomatic mission, Sir Edgar was elevated to 1st Viscount D'Abernon on 1 January 1926,[5] and then also succeeded his brother, Francis, as 16th Baronet of Stoke d'Abernon. The Vincents did not have children and Sir Edgar's titles died with him in 1941. Lady Helen died in 1954.

References

  1. ^ a b Rintoul, M. C. (1993) Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 919. ISBN 0415059992 [1]
  2. ^ Antoon, Donna and James Wetenhall (1993) "Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess d'Abernon" in Masterpieces East & West. Birmingham: Birmingham Museum of Art. ISBN 0931394384
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 28848. p. 5362. 10 July 1914. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
  4. ^ Vincent, Lady Helen, Viscountess d'Abernon (1946) Red Cross and Berlin Embassy, 1915-1926: Extracts from the Diaries of Viscountess D'Abernon. London: J. Murray
  5. ^ London Gazette: no. 33119. p. 1. 29 December 1925. Retrieved 2009-02-26.