Person    | Female  Born 7/2/1888  Died 9/4/1951

Lady Winifred Fortescue

Categories: Benefactor, Literature, Theatre

Countries: France

Writer and actress. Born as Winifred Beech in a Suffolk rectory. Died France.

1914 she married John Fortescue (1859-1933, librarian, archivist at Windsor Castle and British Army historian), despite being 28 years younger than him. She gave up her stage career and took up an interior decorating and dress designing business until illness forced her to give it up. She then began writing for Punch, the Daily Chronicle and The Evening News, and then started a Women's Page for the Morning Post. In the 1930s Sir John and Lady Fortescue moved to Provence in France, where she began her book writing career with 'Perfume from Provence'. She wrote a number of other books there. The marriage produced no children and her husband died within 2 years of them moving to France, but she stayed on until forced to move out by the German invasion during WW2. She returned at the end of the war and died in Opio, Provence.

Peter Riley, curator of Perfume from Provence, drew our attention to the photo of a miniature version of the Elfin Oak, also by Ivor Innes, which Fortescue wrote about in 'Perfume from Provence’. Peter confirms that (2023) it still  hangs in the porch of the Fortescue's former home in Provence.

Sister-in-law to Emily Fortescue for whom we have a good case as the donor of the nearby clock tower.

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Lady Winifred Fortescue

Creations i

Elfin Oak

For hundreds of years, no one knows for how many, this tree lived its life qu...

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Other Subjects

Thomas Smith (Tottenham)

Thomas Smith (Tottenham)

From British History Online we've learnt that lordships are something that could be bought and sold. The Tottenham lordships were tied in with Bruce Castle, until Thomas Smith got involved. Smith l...

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1 memorial
friends and followers of Wilfred Lawson

friends and followers of Wilfred Lawson

Lawson's friends and followers erected the memorial to him in Embankment Gardens.

Group, Benefactor

1 memorial
Eva Strasburger

Eva Strasburger

Daughter to Christopher and Irene Turner which explains her being born Tanzania and brought up in other exotic places. She co-founded a publishing company with Roy Strasburger in Southern England b...

Group, Benefactor, Politics & Administration, Africa, USA

1 memorial
Jeannette Elizabeth Crossthwaite

Jeannette Elizabeth Crossthwaite

Our colleague Andrew Behan provides the following: Born Addiscombe, Surrey, the daughter of John Thomas and Anne Crossthwaite. Her father was a General Merchant. She was baptised on the 24th Decemb...

Person, Benefactor

1 memorial
Sir Montagu Sharpe, KBE, KC, DL

Sir Montagu Sharpe, KBE, KC, DL

Politician, lawyer, ornithologist and amateur archaeologist. Magistrate and Chairman of the Middlesex County Council. Born Paddington. Knighted in 1922 and became a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Middle...

Person, Benefactor, History, Law, Politics & Administration, Romans

4 memorials

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Lord Raglan

Lord Raglan

FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan. Commander in the Crimean War 1853 - 56. It is generally thought to have been his overall incompetence that led to the disaster of the Charge of the Light Brigade...

Person, Armed Forces, Crimea

3 memorials
Hornsey Central Hospital - foundation stone, 1937

Hornsey Central Hospital - foundation stone, 1937

N8, Park Road, 151, Hornsey Central Health Centre

This extension opened in 1938.

6 subjects commemorated, 1 creator