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Pamela Wyndham

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The Viscountess Grey of Fallodon
Personal details
Born
Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Wyndham

(1871-01-14)14 January 1871
Clouds House,East Knoyle,Wiltshire, England
Died18 November 1928(1928-11-18)(aged 57)
Wilsford Manor,Wilsford cum Lake,Wiltshire, England
Spouses
(m.1895; died 1920)
Children
Parents

Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Grey, Viscountess Grey of Fallodon(bornWyndham;previouslyPamela Tennant, Baroness Glenconner;14 January 1871 – 18 November 1928), was an English writer. The wife ofEdward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner,and later ofEdward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon,she is one of theWyndham Sisterspainted byJohn Singer Sargent,who were at the centre of the cultural and political life of their time. Like their parents, they were part ofThe Souls.

Early life

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Wyndham was born on 14 January 1871 atClouds HouseinSalisbury,Wiltshire, England. She was the daughter of Hon.Percy Wyndham(1835–1911) and Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell. Her mother was the daughter ofSir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet,and his wife Pamela FitzGerald, daughter ofLord Edward FitzGeraldandPamela Syms.Her father was the son ofGeorge Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield,and his wife Mary Fanny Blunt, the daughter of Rev. William Blunt.[1]

The 1899 portrait of Pamela and her sisters (Mary,wife of the11th Earl of Wemyss,and Madeline, wife ofCharles Adeane,theLord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire) byJohn Singer Sargent,known as theWyndham sisters,has been described as "the greatest picture of modern times" byThe Times.[2]

Career

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In 1919, Wyndham published the successful memoirs of her sonEdward Tennant,who had been killed duringWorld War I.She also published poems, prose, children's literature, and edited poetry and prose anthologies.[3]

She was friends, among others, withHenry James,Oscar WildeandEdward Burne-Jones,[2]and was part of the poetic and literary circle known asThe Souls.[4]In 1912, she hosted three lectures byEzra Poundin her private art gallery.[3]One her greatest friends wasEdith Olivier;Olivier was a year younger than Wyndham, and they were childhood friends.[5]

In April 1927, as Viscountess Grey, she became the first President of the newly formed North East Coast branch of theElectrical Association for Womenin Newcastle-on-Tyne.[6]

Personal life

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In 1895, Pamela Wyndham marriedEdward Tennant(1859–1920), who was educated atEtonand atTrinity College, Cambridge.Edward was the eldest surviving son of eleven children born toSir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet,and succeeded to his father's baronetcy upon the later's death in 1906. From 1908 until his death in 1920, he served asLord Lieutenant of Peeblesshire.His sister,Margot Tennant,was married toH. H. Asquith,Prime Ministerfrom 1894 until 1928.[7]In 1911, Edward Tennant was raised to the peerage asBaron Glenconner,ofThe Glenin the County of Peebles, which gave Pamela Tennant the title of Baroness Glenconner.

Pamela and Edward Tennant were the parents of:

Following her first husband's death in 1920, in 1922, she married the widowerEdward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon(1862–1933), aLiberalstatesman who served asMember of Parliament,Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs(under Asquith),[7]andBritish Ambassador to the United States.[12]

Viscountess Grey died on 18 November 1928, age 57, at Wilsford Manor inWilsford cum Lake,near Salisbury. The house had been built between 1904–1906 during her first marriage.[13]

Her second husband died on 7 September 1933 and the viscountcy became extinct on his death, though he was succeeded inthe baronetcyby his cousin, Sir George Grey.

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The 2014 bookThose Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Powerby Claudia Renton is about the lives of the Wyndham sisters, Mary, Madeline, and Pamela.[2][14]

Works

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  • Windlestraw: A book of verse,1905
  • The Children and The Pictures,1907 published byHeinemann
  • The White Wallet,1912, republished in 1928 with illustrations byStephen Tennant
  • The Story of Joan Arc,1915
  • The Saving of the Children,1918
  • Edward Wyndham Tennant: a memoir by his mother Pamela Glenconner,1919
  • Shepherd's Crowns: a volume of essays,1923[15]

References

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Notes
  1. ^Glanville-Richards, William Urmston Searle (1882).Records of the Anglo-Norman House of Glanville from A.D. 1050 to 1880...Mitchell and Hughes. p. 141.Retrieved25 July2018.
  2. ^Jump up to: abc"Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton – review".TheGuardian.com.3 February 2014.Retrieved17 January2018.
  3. ^Jump up to: abLaird, Holly A. (2016).The History of British Women's Writing, 1880–1920: Volume Seven.Springer. p. 285.ISBN9781137393807.Retrieved17 January2018.
  4. ^Shawcross, William (2009).The Queen Mother.Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.p. 139.ISBN9780307273314.Retrieved25 July2018.
  5. ^Thomasson, Anna (2015).A Curious Friendship: The Story of a Bluestocking and a Bright Young Thing.Pan Macmillan. p. 24.ISBN9781447245551.Retrieved17 January2018.
  6. ^"A comprehensive timeline of the EAW branches' establishment and growth in the UK, 1925-29".IET Archives blog.15 March 2024.Retrieved15 March2024.
  7. ^Jump up to: abcMcPhail, Helen; Guest, Philip (2001).Sassoon & Graves: On the Trail of the Poets of the Great War.Pen and Sword. p. 175.ISBN9780850528381.Retrieved25 July2018.
  8. ^Dakers & Webb 1993,p. 277.
  9. ^Glenconner, Pamela (2017).Edward Wyndham Tennant: A Memoir (Classic Reprint).Fb&c Limited.ISBN9780331729665.Retrieved25 July2018.
  10. ^Le Vay, Benedict (2011).Ben Le Vay's Eccentric Cambridge.Bradt Travel Guides. p. 119.ISBN9781841624273.Retrieved25 July2018.
  11. ^Billington, Michael (2001).Stage and Screen Lives.Oxford University Press.p. 23.ISBN9780198604075.Retrieved25 July2018.
  12. ^Waterhouse, Michael (2013).Edwardian Requiem: A Life of Sir Edward Grey.Biteback Publishing. p. 159.ISBN9781849545808.Retrieved25 July2018.
  13. ^Historic England."Wilsford House (1131008)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved16 March2023.
  14. ^Renton, Claudia (2018).Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power.Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.ISBN9781101874301.Retrieved25 July2018.
  15. ^Bose, T.; Tiessen, Paul (2011).A Bookman's Catalogue Vol. 1 A-L: The Norman Colbeck Collection of Nineteenth-Century and Edwardian Poetry and Belles Lettres.UBC Press. p. 318.ISBN9780774844833.Retrieved17 January2018.
Sources
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