Death of a Venerable Convert

New Zealand Tablet, 21 December 1911, Page 2609

Death of a Venerable Convert

Our Home exchanges announce the death of Lady Herbert of Lea, at the venerable age of ninety years. Lady Herbert, or to give her her maiden name, Elizabeth a Court Repington, was born in 1822 (says the Catholic Weekly), and was the only daughter of General a Court Repington, a brother of the first Lord Heytesbury. She married in 1846 Sidney Herbert, the wellknown statesmana half-brother of the Earl of Pembrokewho was one of the most prominent members of the ' Peelito ' politicians, as they were tihen called. During the Crimean campaign, Sidney Herbert was Secretary of War, and his wife was one of the foremost workers in the cause which Florence Nightingale made famous. Lady Herbert's husband died the very year he received the title of Lord Herbert of Lea (1861), and it was two years after this that she was received into the Church at Palermo, largely through the influence of her old friend Cardinalthen ArchbishopManning. Her conversion gave her new aims, and a goal to which she ever remained loyal. She threw herself heart and soul into the Catholic cause, and from that time onwards, by notable financial assistance, and by that active personal influence which she knew so well how to exert successfully, Lady Herbert was in the van of every movement, religious and philanthropic, which the Church in England was engaged in promoting. Her charity was boundless, and there is probably hardly any Catholic charity of note which does not owe some debt, whether greater or smaller, to her moral and practical support. Her name will always be remembered with gratitude by the authorities of the Foreign Mission College, Mill Hill, organised by the late Cardinal Vaughan, one of her most valued friends, and she herself founded a Catholic orphanage for girls at Salisbury. Nor were her interests bounded by such works as these. A voluminous writer, Lady Herbert contributed largely to devotional and travel-literature, and was the translator of several well-known works, including the Life of Bishoj) JJujmnloup, by the Abbe Lagrange. She was a familiar figure in Rome, where she had wintered for many years .past, and had lived through some of the most stirring episodes of latterday history. To the present generation she was but a shadowy figure, a reminiscence rather than a reality, though for many months past the pathetic iteration of her name among those prayed for each Sunday reminded worshippers of her need of their prayers.