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Flora Curzon, Lady Howe

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The Right Honourable
The Countess Howe
Photo by Nadar, Paris, 1894
Personal details
Born
Florence Hamilton Davis

(1870-01-27)January 27, 1870
New York City, U.S.
Died15 April 1925(1925-04-15) (aged 55)
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1893; died 1918)​

​
​
(m. 1919)​
Children3
Parent(s)John Hagy Davis
Florence Chapman Davis
Known forLady Terence Blackwood
Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava

Flora Curzon, Lady Howe (born Florence Hamilton Davis; January 27, 1870 – April 15, 1925) was an American heiress and singer who twice married into the British aristocracy.[1]

Early life

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Florence Hamilton Davis was born in New York City around 1865.[2] Flora, as she was known, was the daughter of Bellevue, Ohio born Florence (née Chapman) Davis and John Hagy Davis, a Wall Street banker with John H. Davis & Co., located at 10 Wall Street.[3] She grew up at 24 Washington Square North in New York.[4] Her half-brother, John Ethelbert Davis (1900–1966),[5] was married to Maude Reppelin Bouvier, a daughter of John Vernou Bouvier Jr. and sister of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (of Grey Gardens infamy) and John Vernou Bouvier III (father of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Lee Radziwill).[6]

In 1898, her father, who was as "conspicuous in society as he [wa]s in Wall Street," married for the third time, out of four overall, to South African born Mary Ethel Jackson, a friend of Flora's who was about thirty-three years his junior.[7]

Singing career

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In December 1910, Lady Dufferin, a singer, made her public debut at Bechstein Hall in London.[8] She appeared in a concert arranged by Mme. d'Onalda, but did not accept a fee. Lady Dufferin possessed a "charming soprano voice, and has had training in Paris and elsewhere. When her husband, then Lord Terence Blackwood, was Secretary to the British Embassy at Paris, she frequently sang in private salons in the cause of charity."[8]

Personal life

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A caricature of her second husband by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1896.

On October 16, 1893, Flora was married to Lord Terence John Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood at the English Church of the Holy Trinity in the Avenue de l'Alma in Paris.[9] He was the second son of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava.[10][11] His father was Governor General of Canada of in the 1870s and Viceroy and Governor-General of India in the 1880s and his mother was known for leading an initiative to improve medical care for women in British India.[12][13] They spent their honeymoon at Walmer Castle, which is one of Lord Dufferin's residences by virtue of his position as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. During their marriage, Flora was "socially prominent in the American colony in London"[14] and they were the parents of three daughters:

During the Devonshire House Ball of 1897, then Lady Terence Blackwood, attended as Flora, Goddess of Flowers and was photographed by Walker & Boutall.[16] Her husband went as Captain Blackwood of the Royal Navy.[17]

Upon the death of Terence's older brother Archibald, Earl of Ava at the Siege of Ladysmith in the Second Boer War in 1900,[18] he became the heir and assumed the courtesy title Earl of Ava himself before succeeding his father in 1902.[19] Lord Dufferin died from pneumonia on 7 February 1918 and was buried at the Dufferin ancestral seat of Clandeboye, County Down.[14]

In December 1919, nearly two years after Lord Dufferin's death, the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava remarried to widower Richard George Penn Curzon, 4th Earl Howe, "one of the richest and most distinguished nobleman in England."[20] Lord Howe was a son of Richard Curzon-Howe, 3rd Earl Howe and the former Isabella Maria Katherine Anson (a daughter of Major-General The Hon. George Anson). His first wife was Lady Georgiana Spencer-Churchill, the fifth daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, and wife Lady Frances Vane. From his first marriage, he had one son, Francis, who became the 5th Earl Howe upon Lord Howe's death in 1929.

Lady Howe died of heart disease following influenza and pneumonia at Penn House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire on 14 April 1925.[20]

Descendants

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Through her eldest daughter, she was the grandmother of Hermione Hamilton Gunston (b. 1923), who married Lt. Col. Sir Walter Luttrell MC, and Sonia Helen Gunston JP (b. 1926), appointed Temporary Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II in 1967, and who married Thomas Fairfax, 13th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and had issue including Nicholas Fairfax, 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron.

References

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  1. ^ MacColl, Gail; Wallace, Carol (2012). To Marry an English Lord. Workman Publishing. p. 379. ISBN 9780761171959. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Florence Davis (ca. 1865-1925)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. ^ "JOHN H. DAVIS RETIRES FROM STOCK EXCHANGE; Was a Member for More Than Half a Century -- Transfers Seat to His Son" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 May 1924. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  4. ^ Chambliss, William H. (1895). Chambliss Diary: Or, Society as it Really is. Chambliss. p. 16. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  5. ^ "John E. Davis Dies; a Stockbroker, 66" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 March 1966. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths DAVIS, MAUDE BOUVIER". The New York Times. 25 August 1999. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  7. ^ "JOHN H. DAVIS AGAIN MARRIED.; It Is Announced that He Wedded Miss Mary Ethel Jackson on July 16" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 July 1898. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  8. ^ a b "LADY DUFFERIN IN CONCERT; Will Make Her Debut as a Public Singer in London on Dec. 15" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 December 1910. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  9. ^ "TO BE LADY BLACKWOOD.; EARL DUFFERIN'S SECOND SON TO WED MISS FLORA DAVIS OF NEW-YORK" (PDF). The New York Times. 19 November 1892. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  10. ^ Black, Charles Edward Drummond (1903). The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava: Diplomatist, Viceroy, Statesman. Hutchinson. p. 392. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  11. ^ "A Biography of Dufferin" (PDF). The New York Times. 11 April 1903. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  12. ^ Forbes, Geraldine Hancock (1943). Women in Colonial India: Essays on Politics, Medicine, and Historiography. New Delhi: Chronicle Books. ISBN 8180280179. OCLC 60396009.
  13. ^ "THE BLACKWOOD-DAVIS WEDDING.; The Religious Ceremony Celebrated Yesterday in Paris" (PDF). The New York Times. 17 October 1893. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  14. ^ a b "MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN DIES. Diplomat's Widow Was Formerly Miss Florence Davis of New York" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 February 1918. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  15. ^ "LADY PATRICIA IS WED TO HENRY RUSSELL; Actress, Daughter of Countess Howe, Becomes Bride of Opera Impresario in Paris" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 June 1926. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Florence (née Davis), Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (later Countess Howe) - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  17. ^ "Terence John Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 2nd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava when Lord Terence Blackwood as Captain Blackwood, R.N." www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery, London. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  18. ^ The Current Encyclopedia: A Monthly Record of Human Progress. Hearst's International. 1902. p. 1124. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  19. ^ "LORD DUFFERIN IS DEAD; Famous Diplomat's Last Days Were Clouded by Misfortune. He Never Wholly Recovered from the Shock of His Eldest Son's Death--The New Marquis Married Miss Flora Davis of This City" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 February 1902. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  20. ^ a b "LADY HOWE DIES' IN ENGLISH HOME; Former Flora H. Davis of New York a Victim of Heart Disease Following Influenza" (PDF). The New York Times. 15 April 1925. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
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