The Painting Second World War

You can read about Millicent Fanny Sutherland Leveson-Gower (1867-1955), known first of all as Lady Millicent St. Clair-Erskine, in the DNB here (free if you type in your local library card number). When she was 17 she became the Marchioness of Stafford, when she was 25 the Duchess of Sutherland, then in 1913, a couple of years before she set up the field hospital, the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland (because her husband died). Then she remarried and from 1914-19 was Lady Millicent Fitzgerald. Then she divorced and married again and was Lady Millicent Hawes until she died (although she divorced again in 1925). All that seems a lot to cope with but she published How I spent my Twentieth Year when she was – 22, had four children before she was 26, was a great hostess, campaigned for the elimination of lead in pottery glazing, for which she was caricatured by Arnold Bennett as the Countess of Chell, wrote short stories and a novel and, having served in France all during the First World War, was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Belgian Royal Red Cross, and the British Red Cross medal. Oh and she escaped through France, Spain and Portugal to the United States during the Second World War.