Mabel Lethbridge
Mabel Florence Lethbridge
Early life
Mabel Lethbridge was born on 7 July 1900 in Luccombe, Somerset, the second youngest of six children of John Acland Musgrave Lethbridge (1869 – 1934) and the American Florence Martin (Mary) Cooper (d 1931). Her Grandfather was Sir Wroth Periam Christopher Lethbridge, 5th Baronet (1863–1950) and her paternal family were long established Somerset gentry. Her parents divorced in 1903[1] and the first volume of her autobiography is brief on her childhood years,[2] although she later records that her father worked overseas in the Empire and that she had a peripatetic upbringing that variously included Kenya, Italy and Ireland.[2] Her father was at one time a professional soldier and big game huntsman who had served in South Africa, but by 1907 he was a declared bankrupt in Kenya.[3] He then abandoned his family and, although he lived until 1934, he did not see his children again, dying in poverty in Mexico.[4] She suffered several years of poor health necessitating a period of convalescence near
Great War service
In 1917 Lethbridge took a job as a nurse at Bradford Hospital where she tended troops who had been injured and maimed in the War. Returning to London she applied to work at the
Post War life
There followed several years of earning a meagre living, recounted in her autobiography published in 1934.[2] She worked variously as a house maid, sold matches and hired a barrel organ to entertain crowds on Armistice Day in 1918. In 1923, she spotted an opportunity with the long queues that used to form outside London theatres and cinemas and hired out chairs and stools for the waiting patrons to sit on, thereby earning the sobriquet "Peggy the Chair Lady". Her enterprise drew her into a criminal underworld that flourished in the aftermath of the Great War.[5] In 1922 she married Noel Eric Sproule Kalenberg, a
Mabel Lethbridge had recognised that people wanted living accommodation in Chelsea where her family resided and accordingly opened an estate agency with a prestigious address in Cheyne Walk. It was a major success allowing Lethbridge to remove herself from the poverty of the immediate post war years, maintain a house in London and a rural retreat in Chertsey, Surrey. In her first volume of autobiography she describes herself as the first woman to own and run an estate agency.[2][13]
St Ives
In 1939 Lethbridge volunteered for the
In 1948 Mabel converted to
Mabel Lethbridge died in London in July 1968 following yet another operation resulting from her injuries. She is buried at Longstone Cemetery, Carbis Bay, Cornwall.[5] Her daughter Suzanne Lethbridge Murray died at Wivenhoe, Essex, in September 2013.[16]
Writing
In 1933 Lethbridge met and befriended the publisher Geoffrey Bles who persuaded her to recount her life in an autobiography Fortune Grass published by Bles publishing in 1934 covers the first twenty-seven years of her life. Her account of the explosion at the munitions factory in October 1917 that so severely injured Lethbridge is vividly recounted. "Now a blinding flash and I felt my body torn asunder. Darkness, that terrifying darkness and the agonsied cries of the workers pierced my consciousness."[17] The book sold out its initial print run within months and generally received good reviews. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that Lethbridge's success "depended upon her quick recognition of the change of fashions… One can marvel at this story of immense and unscrupulous pluck and can but admire the dauntless Peggy."[18] A further autobiographical book Against The Tide followed in 1936.[19] In the 1930s and 1940s she also contributed regularly to the Daily Sketch and to various journals and periodicals. In 1962 she was featured in a national television programme creating enough interest for a further volume Homeward Bound, published in 1967, that included her experiences in the Second World War and her post war life in Cornwall.[4]
Bibliography
- Fortune Grass (G Bles Publishers, 1934)
- Against The Tide (G Bles Publishers, 1936)
- Homeward Bound (G Bles Publishers, 1967)
References
- ^ National Archives: Divorce Court File 3658
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mabel Lethbridge, Fortune Grass, G Bles, 1936.
- ^ The Kenya Gazette, 1 July 1907.
- ^ a b Mabel Lethbridge, Homeward Bound, G Bles, 1967.
- ^ a b c St. Ives Times and Echo, two-part article, May–June 2013, Paul Moran.
- ^ "No. 30464". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 January 1918. p. 471.
- ^ "No. 30464". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 January 1918. p. 476.
- ^ "Medal For Kent Heroine", Daily Mail, 18 May 1918.
- ^ Cambridge University, Fitzwilliam Hall matriculation listing, 1921-22
- ^ The Journal of The Family of Blaze of Ceylon, Dutch Burgher Union, Vol. 40, 1950.
- Emily Holmes Colemandiaries held at The University of Delaware
- ^ Liss Llewellyn Fine Art catalogue entry for "Study for The Kerry Flute Player", 1934.
- ^ London Gazette, 15 February 1935, trading as The Cheyne Walk Estate Agency.
- ^ "Sven Berlin 1911 - 1999", Finishing Publications Ltd, Herts, UK.
- ^ "The Great War Interviews: 7. Mabel Lethbridge, BBC Radio Four.
- ^ Deceased Estates notice, The London Gazette, April 2014.
- ^ Lethbridge, Mabel (1934). Fortune Grass. London: Geoffrey Bles. p. 81.
- ^ "A Book to Read", The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 February 1935.
- ^ Mabel Lethbridge, Against The Tide, Bles, 1936.