OBITUARY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20586, 27 November 1936, Page 12

OBITUARY

MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN LONDON, November 28. The mother of Lady Victoria Braithwaite and the grandmother of Lord Plunket has died at the great age of 93. The Dowager Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava was the widow of the first Marquess of Dufferin, who was Viceroy of India from 1884 to 1888. Lady Dufferin earned the gratitude of the women of India for the valuable work she accomplished in founding the association through whose instrumentality medical aid is given oy women to Indian women and in establishing the associated Dufferin Fund. This fund was founded by Lady Dufferin as the result of a conversation with Queen Victoria before Lady Dufferin went with her husband to India. The Queen expressed her deep sym ■ pathy with Indian women in the sufferings they had to undergo owing to the lack of medical attention, and charged Lady Dufferin to see what could be done. Her efforts to carry out the Queen’s wish resulted in the formation of the “Dufferin Fund” and the “National Association for Supplying Medical Aid by Women to the Women of India,” which she initiated in 1887. The affection which Indian women entertained for Lady Dufferin as the result of the great work she did for them is immortalised in Kipling’s “The Song of the Women.”

Two of her daughters were with Lady Dufferin at the time of her death, Viscountess Novar and Lady Hermione Blackwood. Her other daughter, Lady Victoria Braithwaite, has been seriously ill m a nursing home.

Lady Dufferin was the author of “Our Viceregal Life in India,” “My Canadian Journal,” and “My Russian and Turkish Journals.” These are lively but diplomatically discreet narratives; which show that she possessed a very real power of vivid description, an eye for picturesque incident, and a humorous appreciation of human character.