Lois Sturt : Viscountess Tredegar : Wild Child : Lois' People Circle

Lois Sturt : Viscountess Tredegar: Wild Child

                                        New Book by William Cross               

Lois’ People Circle of friends, lovers and enemies and places visited

 1921-1927

Hon. Lois Ina  Sturt ( 1900-1937)  was one of those Bright Young Things who were summed up as idle rich kids.

Lois  was described by the writer  Henry Maxwell,  who knew her well, as a   “ boisterous, life-loving, large-hearted person, who tended to do everything to excess..”  

Over the course of the next few months the Author  William Cross will include ( as a regular blog posting )  an extract  ( based on Lois' engagement diaries and newspaper evidence )  relating to  people and places  Lois Sturt could  be found in the period 1921-1927. These postings  will include Lois' family, friends, lovers and enemies in the years before she married the  Hon. Evan Frederic Morgan, later Lord Tredegar of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales.

At aged almost 21, in 1921,  Lois was hailed as “ extremely clever, paints well and is a very good dancer.” She had already been chosen to  star in the movies alongside her fellow stage performer, Lady Diana Cooper, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland and wife of the womanising Duff Cooper, also a lover of Lois.

Lois  was a debutante of  the year 1920. She  was still watched over closely by her mother Lady Feo Alington and for the first few months of 1921 by her brother, Naps (  the 3rd Lord Alington). Naps left Britain in the early summer of 1921 to spend time in America to study banking. Since the fun loving Naps was a like pea in the proverbial pod to his  high spirited  sister, banking came last to having a real good time!  

The first items show Lois at  a family wedding and enjoying the company of friends at the Embassy Club, one of London's must be seen in night clubs!!

FEBRUARY 1921

in February, 1921, Lois was at a wedding with her mother and step- grandmother

Lois attended the wedding of her cousin Captain Hon. Alexander Hardinge ( son of Lord Hardinge and Winifred Sturt, a late sister of her Lois’ father ) . The bride was Miss Helen Cecil only child of Lord Edward Cecil.  King George V and Queen Mary with Princess Mary also attended.   The Queen was attended by Mabell, Dowager Countess of Airlie. Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon ( later Duchess of York ) was a bridesmaid.  Feo Alington was accompanied by her late husband’s stepmother Evelyn, Lady Alington.

 Freda Dudley Ward : Mistress of the Prince of Wales

Also in February, 1921 Lois could be  seen dining at the Embassy Club in a cosy milieu with Freda Dudley Ward ( mistress of  Edward,   Prince of Wales) and Freda’s other lover, Michael Herbert ( Lord Pembroke’s cousin [ Reggie Pembroke was Lois' lover  for four years ] ). Huddled in a corner were Evan’s chums Sir Philip Sassoon and Lord Castlerosse.

Any comments or questions, please contact William Cross by e-mail.

williecross@aol.com