Lucy Caroline Lyttelton 54
- Born: 1841, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
- Marriage: Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish in June 1864
- Died: 22 April 1925, Tonbridge, Kent aged 84 13
General Notes:
From The Times, April 23, 1925
We regret to announce that Lady Frederick Cavendish died last night at her residence, the Glebe House, Penshurst, Tonbridge, at the age of 84. She was the widow of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who was murdered more than 40 years ago in Phoenix Park, Dublin, a few hours after he had been sworn in as Chief Secretary of Ireland. Her death thus severs the link with the Gladstonian epoch in Victorian politics, and with that generation of Gladstones, Glynnes, Lytteltons, and Cavendishes. Miss Lucy Caroline Lyttelton was born in 1841, the second daughter of the fourth Lord Lyttelton, scholar and administrator, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, of Hawarden Castle, on July 25, 1839. It was a double wedding, for at the same time Mr. Gladstone married Sir Stephen Glynne's eldest daughter Catherine. Miss Lyttelton thus grew up in the Gladstone tradition and in a highly-cultivated and intellectual society. She had eight brothers, men of singular and varied gifts. Four of them, Lord Cobham, Spencer and Alfred Lyttelton, and the Bishop of Southampton, died before her; four survive her, General Sir Neville Lyttelton, Dr. Edward Lyttelton, the Rev. A.V. Lyttelton, and Mr. Robert Lyttelton. Her two sisters married two Talbot brothers, the Right Hon. J. G. Talbot, for many years member for the University of Oxford, and Bishop E. S. Talbot, Bishop of Southwark and subsequently of Winchester. Her half-sisters are Mrs. John Bailey, Mrs. Lionel Cust, and Mrs. Alington. Miss Lyttelton was appointed a maid of honour to Queen Victoria, whom she attended until her marriage, in June 1864, to Lord Frederick Cavendish, younger brother of the then Lord Hartington, afterwards the eighth Duke of Devonshire. Lord Frederick was a most capable and high-minded man. In the Gladstone Government of 1880 he was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and while there he framed a plan of finance for a new scheme of land purchase. This led directly to his appointment, in May, 1882, as Chief Secretary for Ireland in succession to Mr. W. E. Forster, but he had hardly been sworn in when he was assassinated while walking homewards through Phoenix Park, together with Mr. Burke, the Under-Secretary. Never has a political murder found a more innocent victim than Lord Frederick. Mr. Gladstone knew what he was saying when, in speaking of him in the House of Commons, he used the words: "One of the very noblest hearts in England has ceased to beat." And Lady Frederick was fully worthy of being the wife of such a man. When she first saw Mr. Gladstone on that terrible night after the news reached London she had the heroism to say to him, "You did right to send him to Ireland". Well might Dean Church declare that no Roman or Florentine lady ever uttered a more heroic thing. A fortnight later Gladstone wrote to Lord Ripon in India:- "We are bound to merge our own sorrow in the larger and deeper affliction of the widow and the father...We have seen much of Lady Frederick, who has been good even beyond what we could have hoped. I have no doubt you have heard in India the echo of words spoken by Spencer from a letter of hers, in which she said she could give up even him in death were to work good to his fellow-men, which indeed was the whole object of his life. These words have had a tender effect, as remarkable as the horror excited by the slaughter. Spencer wrote to me that a priest in Connemara read them from the altar; when the whole congregation spontaneously fell down upon their knee". The spirit of duty and courage which Lady Frederick showed in this darkest hour she carried on throughout her long widowhood. She had no children of her own, but to the children and grandchildren of her own and her husband's brothers and sisters she devoted herself with loving interest, and was rewarded by more more than the ordinary affection of nephews and nieces. She continued for nearly 30 years to live on in her London home and made her house in Carlton House-terrace a centre for all sorts of good work. She inherited the Gladstonian interest in the Eastern Churches, and was long President of the Friends of Armenia. The most convinced and devoted of Churchwomen, she gave her unstinted sympathy and support to the work of the Church wherever she found opportunity. She was an admirable speaker, with the double appeal of sincerity and humour, and frequently used her gifts to plead for the religious or charitable causes which she had at heart. Indeed, until her retirement from London, not long before the war, she was continually occupied with work for others of one kind or another. She took a great interest in the education of girls and young women, and she proved a helpful member of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education in 1894. She remained a strong Liberal of the Gladstonian type, and though she had been a complete invalid for some years before her death she continued to the end of her life to take the keenest interest in all political questions. At one time she was a fairly frequent correspondent of The Times. In 1904 the University of Leeds conferred on her the honorary degree of L.L.D. Lady Frederick possessed a singular charm of kindliness and humour, combined with a natural dignity. She was, indeed, as attractive in old age as she had been before the great sorrow which with rare courage and fineness of spirit she kept in her own heart.
Noted events in her life were:
1. Census UK 1911: 1911, The Glebe House, Penshurst, Kent.
2. Resided: 22 April 1925, The Glebe House, Penshurst, Kent. 13
3. She had an estate probated on 5 June 1925 in London.
Lucy married Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish, son of William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire and Unknown, in June 1864. (Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish was born on 30 November 1836 in Compton Place, Eastbourne, Sussex 833 and died on 6 May 1882 in Phoenix Park, Dublin 833.)
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