Valerie Susan, Lady Meux, (1847 – 1910) was a Victorian socialite and the wife of Sir Henry Meux, 3rd Baronet (1856 - 1900), a London brewer.
Valerie Langdon married Henry Meux (pronounced "Mews"[1]) in secret and in haste on 27 August 1878. He was the son of Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet, and succeeded his father in the title in 1883. She claimed to have worked as an actress before her marriage but many believed she had worked under the name Val Reece at the Casino de Venise in Holborn. There was some suggestion that she had been a prostitute.
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James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted three portraits of Lady Meux in 1881. The portraits were the first full-scale commissions to be given to Whistler following the notorious Ruskin trial which had left him financially bankrupt. Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux currently belongs to the Frick Collection in New York City, Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux belongs to the Honolulu Academy of Arts while the third portrait, Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs, is believed to have been destroyed by Whistler after he became outraged over a comment made to him by Lady Meux during a sitting[2].
Never accepted by her husband's family or by polite society, she was a flamboyant and controversial figure, who was given to driving herself around London in a high phaeton, drawn by a pair of zebra[3]. With Sir Henry, their house at Theobalds in Hertfordshire was lavishly improved and enlarged; additions included a swimming pool and an indoor roller skating rink[4]. In 1887, at Lady Meux's request, the dismantled Temple Bar was purchased from the City of London Corporation, transported to Hertfordshire and carefully rebuilt as a new gateway to the estate. She often entertained in the gateway's upper chamber; guests included the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill[5]. Sir Henry died in 1900, without issue[6].
Lady Meux owned a string of race horses, racing them under the assumed name of Mr Theobolds. As an owner she was not greatly successful, but she won the Sussex Stakes with Ardeshir in 1897[7]. She was also a noted collector of ancient Egyptian artifacts; the legendary Egyptologist Wallis Budge, published a catalogue of more than 1,700 of her items including 800 scarabs and amulets; he dedicated his The Book of Paradise to her. She tried to leave the collection to the British Museum but the trustees declined the bequest and it was sold. She also acquired five illustrated Ethiopic manuscripts, and Budge published a colored facsimile of them. On finding that they were revered by the Ethiopians, she left them in her will to the Emperor Menelik; the courts set aside this provision to keep them in Britain - and they were sold to William Randolph Hearst, of California.[8]
During the Second Boer War, the early British reverses had made headline news, and the defence of Ladysmith had made a particular impression on Lady Meux. On hearing of the landing of naval guns for the Battle of Ladysmith[9], she had ordered, at her own expense, six naval 12-pounders on special field carriages made by Armstrongs of Elswick. The guns were sent direct to Lord Roberts in South Africa, because they had been refused by the War Office. They were known as the "Elswick Battery", and were manned by the 101st (Northumbrian) Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers). The battery was in action several times, including the Second Battle of Silkaatsnek[10][11].
When Sir Hedworth Lambton, (the commander of the Naval Brigade at Ladymith) returned to England, he called on Lady Meux at Theobalds to thank her for her gift and recount his adventures. She was so taken with him that she made him the chief beneficiary of her will, on condition that he change his surname to Meux (she was without direct heirs). When she died on 20 December 1910, he willingly changed his name by Royal Warrant[12] and inherited the Hertfordshire estate and a substantial interest in the Meux Brewery[13].