Elizabeth Balfour, Countess of Balfour
Woking Habitation | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Elizabeth Edith Bulwer-Lytton 12 June 1867 Conservative |
Spouse | Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour |
Children | 6 (including Lady Eve Balfour and Robert Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour) |
Parent(s) | Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton Edith Villiers |
Occupation | politician, writer, suffragette |
Elizabeth Edith Balfour, Countess of Balfour (née Lady Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton; 12 June 1867 – 28 March 1942) was a British suffragette, politician, and writer. A staunch
Early life and family
Lady Balfour was born Elizabeth Edith Bulwer-Lytton on at
During Lady Balfour's childhood, her father was posted to Lisbon, Madrid, and Vienna.[1] She and her sisters were educated by governesses.[2][3] In 1876, her parents were appointed as the Viceroy and Vicereine of India and the family moved into the Viceroy's Palace.[1][2] Her father resigned from the position in 1880 and was created Earl of Lytton, at which time she became entitled to the style Lady Edith Bulwer-Lytton.[1] The family returned from India that same year, and took us residence at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.[3] Her father later served as the British Ambassador to France.[1] As her father's travel companion, she took on many of her mother's duties as a society hostess.[1]
Politics
Lady Balfour was very politically active, and was a member of the
In 1908, along with the Countess of Selborne, Alice Blanche Balfour, Lady Rayleigh, Lady Robert Cecil, Lady Edward Spencer-Churchill, Lady Lockyear, the Countess of Meath, Viscountess Midleton, Lady Strachey, Constance Jones, Dame Margaret Tuke, and Louisa Twining, Lady Balfour helped establish the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association.[2] She later became president of the association's chapter in Edinburgh.[1] She also served as the vice president of the International Women's Franchise Club.[1]
She served as the
Lady Balfour was on good terms with members of the Women's Social and Political Union and, in 1911, she chaired a meeting in Nairn where Emmeline Pankhurst was the speaker.[1] She opposed violent actions taken by the Women's Social and Political Union, however, and when a medieval church in East Lothian was burned down by suffragettes, she raised funds for its reconstruction.[1]
In April 1919, Lady Balfour became the first woman elected to the Woking Borough Council, representing St John's Ward.[2][4]
Writing
Lady Balfour wrote a history of her father's administration in India, titled The History of Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, 1876 to 1880, before his death in 1891.[1] She also published a selection of her father's poems in 1894 and edited The Personal and Literary Letters of Robert, First Earl of Lytton in 1906.[3]
In 1910, the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association published Lady Balfour's analysis of a debate in the House of Commons on the Women's Franchise Bill.[2] In 1925, she edited Letters of Constance Lytton, written by her sister Lady Constance.[2]
Personal life
In 1887, she married
They had five daughters and one son:
- Lady Eleanor Balfour (1890 – d. after 1980)
- Lady Ruth Balfour (d. 30 August 1967)
- Lady Mary Edith Balfour (d. 21 January 1894 – 1980)
- Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour (16 July 1898 – 1990)
- Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour (31 December 1902 – 28 November 1968)
- Lady Kathleen Constance Blanche Balfour (1912 – 20 August 1996).
In 1900, they moved to
Through her husband's social connections, she became associated with the elite social and intellectual group The Souls.[2] She was a talented musician and became a close friend of the composer and suffragist Dame Ethel Smyth, who was also her neighbor.[2]
Her husband succeeded his brother as Earl of Balfour in 1930, at which time she became the Countess of Balfour.[3]
Death and legacy
Lady Balfour died of a perforated duodenal ulcer on 28 March 1942 at Fisher's Hill's cottage in Woking.[1][2] Balfour road in Westfield is named after her.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Betty Balfour · Suffragette Stories". suffragettestories.omeka.net. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Lady Elizabeth Edith 'Betty' Balfour [née Lytton] (1867 -1942)". Exploring Surrey's Past. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "Balfour, Elizabeth Edith, 1867-1942 (née Lytton, countess of Balfour, social hostess and biographer) | ArchiveSearch". archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
- ^ Surrey Advertiser, 5 April 1919, p.4-5