Lady Constance Butler
Lady Constance Mary Butler (26 March 1879 – 20 April 1949) was an Anglo-Irish noblewoman, yachtswoman and antiquarian. Medical volunteer work during World War I led to a later career in radiography.
Early life and family
[edit]Constance Mary Butler was the daughter of James Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde and Lady Elizabeth Grosvenor. Her grandfathers were John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde and Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster. Her great-grandfather, George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland, was a member of the Leveson-Gower family. Another great-grandfather, Edward Paget, was the British Governor of Ceylon. Constance's older sister Beatrice married Sir Reginald Pole-Carew, an officer in the British Army.[1]
Career
[edit]Both of her parents were active in yachting,[2] and Lady Constance was recognized as a "keen yachtswoman" and a "wonderful swimmer."[3] "Lady Ormonde and her daughter always wear, when yachting, the most severely simple and workmanlike clothes."[2] She was also considered a beauty among the noblewomen of her generation,[4] and what she wore (on dressier occasions than yachting) was reported in detail on society pages.[5]
She and her sister attended the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, seated in a box set aside for "personal friends of the Queen and Queen Alexandra."[6] During World War I she managed a Red Cross depot for medical and surgical supplies,[7] and collaborated with Bishop John Henry Bernard on translating, editing, and publishing the Charters of Duiske Abbey.[8]
Later in life, Lady Constance Butler remained interested in medical work, and became an expert on radiography, heading the x-ray department at St. Andrew's Hospital in London by 1924.[9][10]
Personal life
[edit]As Lady Constance had no brothers, her father's heir was the eldest of his surviving younger brothers Lord Arthur Butler. Despite this, she and her sister Beatrice were well-provided for financially, having been made the residuary legatees of the estate of their first-cousin twice-removed George O'Callaghan, 2nd Viscount Lismore - Lord Lismore's mother was a younger sister of Constance's great-grandfather James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde.[11]
Following the death of Lord Lismore in 1898 and his widow in 1900, the sisters inherited an estate worth an estimated £25,000 annually, as well as Shanbally Castle in County Tipperary, Ireland.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ "Lady Beatrice Butler's Wedding" The Queenslander (27 April 1901): 827. via Trove
- ^ a b "Cowes Regatta: Some Famous Yachtswomen" The bystander (26 July 1905): 175-176.
- ^ "A Keen Yachtswoman" Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine (May–October 1907): 439.
- ^ "Daughter of Peer a Beauty of Erin" Star Press (25 December 1902): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Untitled item, Washington Post (20 August 1907): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "The Peeresses at the Coronation", Patea Mail (21 August 1911).
- ^ "A Hospital Store" The Times (27 December 1915): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Constance Mary Butler and John Henry Bernard, "The Charters of the Abbey of Duiske" Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 35(1918).
- ^ "British Peeress is an X-Ray Specialist" Santa Cruz Evening News (1 January 1924): 1. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Lady Butler" Petaluma Argus-Courier (26 January 1925): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Will of 2nd Viscount Lismore". The Catholic Weekly. 22 April 1899. Retrieved 11 May 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Inheritance: Lady Beatrice Butler & Lady Constance Butler". Chester Chronicle, and Cheshire and North Wales General Advertiser. 1 April 1899. Retrieved 11 May 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
[edit]- Photographs from a 1902 royal shooting party at Sandringham House, including Lady Constance, King Haakon VII of Norway, King Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George V, and other notables; in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
- William Murphy, "Archbishop Bernard, Lady Constance Butler and the Charters of Duiske" Ossory, Laois and Leinster 4(2010): 185–201.