BRITAIN'S WEALTHIEST WOMEN

Evening Star, Issue 23056, 7 September 1938, Page 15

BRITAIN'S WEALTHIEST WOMEN

Most of Britain’s wealthiest women inherited their fortunes from men who made the money, then left it to their widows and daughters to spend, but they do not spend it all on clothes, states a London writer.

They care little about fashion —they cultivate homeliness in dress as a disguise. They buy tweeds and woollen jumpers, and use their money on horses, yachts, homes for forlorn animals, and social crusades. They are not particularly social. . Two exceptions are Lady Louis Mpuutbatten and Mrs CunninghamReid—joint heiresses to the fortune left by their grandfather, Sir Ernest Cassel. They dross well—usually some modest little thing in black with a diamond clip or a link of pearls which on any other woman would be ' a good imitation'. 1 LONDON’S, ONUY PENTHOUSE, They do the full social round. Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten live in London’s only penthouse—on the top of Brook House, Park Lane. It is three-storied, has several bathrooms, and the rent is £4,200 a year. The Hon. Dorothy Paget—daughter of Lord Queensborough—inherited her money from her mother, a Whitney. She is not interested in clothes. She picks racehorses as other women pick new clothes in spring and autumn. Her nearest approach to fashion is a mink coat. She wears it to keep warm. Few of those women live up to their incomes, and could be just as happy with less. Some of them seem embarrassed by it, and try to live r. quiet life in the country where their wealth will not hamper them or be noticed. The Hon. Mrs Catherine MacdonaldBuchanan, second richest woman in the country, lives a modest family life at Guilsborough, Northants. She has four children, is interested in child welfare and racing. Her fortune came from whisky. It was left to her by her father, Lord Woolavington, Lady Yule, the richest woman in Britain, spends most, of her time on board her yacht the Nahlin avoiding people. On land she lives at Bricket Wood, St. Albans, Herts, taking care of her private menagerie. She has kept bears, seals, and penguins, and rescues worn-out carthorses. She was left £9.000,000 by her husband, who was an India merchant. Some of Britain’s wealthy women take passionately to some cause, spend their money crusading for it. Nearly all of them have their pet charities and give thousands of pounds a year to homes and hospitals they fancy. ANDREW CARNEGIE’S WIDOW. Andrew Carnegie’s widow came back to Scotland after her husband’s death, and has continued giving thousands away to charities. Her husband gave £100.000.000 in his lifetime. Mrs Carnegie is at Skibo Castle, Dornoch, preparing for the marriage of her 18-year-old granddaughter, Louise Carnegie Miller, to a hardworking Scottish lawyer. Mr F. Gordon “Thomson.-' The.»bride, who is an heiress to the fortune, will settle in Edinburgh. She has brought the Carnegie millions home again.. Lady Baillie, Dorothy Paget’s sister, is said to have £50,000 a year. She lives jn one of the most beautiful houses in England Leeds Castle, Kent. Her house is her hobby. Few women have ever made a million from their own work. Grade Fields, at £50,000 a picture, looks like doing it.