Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale

The Right Honourable The Baroness Ravensdale CBE
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer 19 November 1963 – 9 February 1966
Preceded by	The 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (as 1st Baron Ravensdale)
Succeeded by	The 3rd Baron Ravensdale
as a life peer 6 October 1958 – 9 February 1966
Personal details
Born	Mary Irene Curzon (1896-01-20)20 January 1896
Died	9 February 1966(1966-02-09) (aged 70)
Political party	Crossbench
Parent(s)	George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Mary Leiter
Relatives	Lady Cynthia Mosley (sister) Lady Alexandra Curzon (sister)

Mary Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale, Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston,

The eldest child of George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, and Mary Leiter, she inherited her father's lesser title, the Barony of Ravensdale, on 20 March 1925, and was created a life peer as Baroness Ravensdale of Kedleston, of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, on 6 October 1958. This allowed her to sit in the House of Lords prior to the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, which allowed suo jure hereditary peeresses to enter. She and her two younger sisters were memorialised by Anne de Courcy in The Viceroy's Daughters: the Lives of the Curzon Sisters.^[1]

Background

Irene was born at 4 Carlton House Gardens, St James's the eldest child of

Irene's father was the successful diplomat-politician George Curzon. After he was appointed Viceroy of India in 1898, she went out with her mother and sisters to live in New Delhi. Shortly after they returned to England, Lord Curzon resigned, in 1905, at the end of a long period of Conservative government. Created Earl of Kedleston and Baron Ravensdale in 1911, the titles were in reversion to daughters as well as heirs male.

Irene was a "tall and stately beauty" according to her friend Charlotte Greenwood. She was intensely musical and passionate about

Both Victor Cazalet and Nevile Henderson proposed to her. She was briefly engaged to Miles Graham on the rebound from a long entanglement with Gordon Leith but never married or had children.^[4][6] She became a guardian to her sister Cynthia’s three children with Oswald Mosley following Cynthia’s death. She was particularly attached to Michael who was a small child when his mother died. She worried that she and her money might be seen primarily as useful accompaniments to a political career and yearned to marry a man who would refuse to leave his wife.^[4]

Despite her active social life, she maintained a strong dedication towards welfare work. She was appointed the chair of Highways Clubs Inc. In 1936 which provided music, handicrafts and physical training to young disadvantaged people. She was also appointed vice-president of the National Association of the Girls Clubs and Mixed Clubs. And then she was the obvious candidate to be the president of the London Union of Youth Clubs.^[7]

A confirmed Anglican, she was most tolerant of other religions. Her friend, the Asian explorer,

In later years she demonstrated how she had worked hard all her career to campaign for others, for charity and to get women into the House of Lords. On 22 October 1958 she was created one of the first four life peeresses and introduced to the Lords.[9]

She sat on the Cross bench when she made a maiden speech on 4 February 1959, in which she discussed funding youth services.^[10] She called on the government to take grant aid seriously to fund a voluntary sector that was understaffed. In Charity Commissioners Act 1959, the Macmillan administration conducted a major overhaul of the sector.^{[citation needed]}

Speaking on the Street Offences bill 1959 she criticised the law that blamed women for seeking income from prostitution, and instead sought to punish the men. She accused the government of permitting the burgeoning club scene in London, particularly to thrive, off criminal gangs, pimps and ponces. Her clever use of humour and language interspersed with Tory shock tactics impressed her fellow peers.^[11]

In celebrating youth services, the baroness affirmed the Albemarle Report; finding a need for 'professionalised' recruitment was not the answer to a million youngsters by 1962, by moral and ethical principles.^[12] Lady Ravensdale died in 1966. She was succeeded in her hereditary peerage by her nephew, writer and biographer Nicholas Mosley, son of her sister Lady Cynthia Mosley and Sir Oswald Mosley.^[13]

Publications

• In Many Rhythms: An Autobiography, (London, 1953)

References

Bibliography

• Anne de Courcy, The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters (London: Phoenix, 2000)