LADY GLADWYN’S TERM IN PARIS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29193, 2 May 1960, Page 2

LADY GLADWYN’S TERM IN PARIS

Restored Embassy To Former Splendour

Lady Gladwyn, wife of the British Ambassador to France, has spent the last five years supervising the restoration of the palatial British Embassy in Paris. Now she must prepare to leave what has become one of the most splendid houses in the French capital, says a London correspondent Last week her husband reached the retiring age of 60 and later in the year he will be succeeded by Sir Pierson Dixon, Britain’s permanent representative at the United Nations. Lady Gladwyn has restored the Embassy to its Napoleonic splendour with the help of officials of the Louvre. Old documents have been studied to make it almost the same as when it was occupied by Napoleon’s sister. Princess Pauline. The new colour schemes are the same as those chosen by the princess; much of the original furniture has been restored; the outer walls have been cleaned. The work has cost more than £12,000. Perfect Hostess The Embassy ballroom still contains a throne once used by Queen Victoria. Lady Gladwyn sleeps in the bed which originally belonged to Princess Pauline. Lady Gladwyn has been the perfect hostess in these luxurious surroundings. She is such a picture of old-world elegance, with her silver white hair and youthful face, that she has been described as "the living image of a Watteau shepherdess;”

The Ambassador’s wife has enjoyed every moment of her six years in Paris, She speaks French well and has French ancestry. She is the great-great-grand-daughter of Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose father went to England from France at the time of the French Revolution. She went to Paris from New York in 1954, and has two daughters, Vanessa, aged 27. and Stella, aged 25, and a son Miles.