THE INSUFFERABLE SUFFRAGETTE

See Also: CARS Air-Bound Shadows; ECCENTRICITY

Fanny Radmall was born in Kennington, the daughter of a warehouseman. As a child she was impudent. In her teens she became a wasp-waisted coquette who found work as a chorus girl. At the age of sixteen she persuaded the wealthy brewer Frederick Gretton to leave his wife and elope with her to Paris. He died in 1882. He bequeathed her an income of several thousand pounds a year for the rest of her life. Subsequently, she married a baronet and then a bankrupt baron - the 9^th Lord Byron.

The baroness was someone who was given to espousing causes. Before the First World War she was a supporter of the suffragette movement. After the conflict, she embraced a very right-wing form of nationalism that bordered upon fascism. A widow since 1917 she inveigled Sir Robert Houston 1^st Bt. into marrying her in 1926. They were a well-matched couple. The Liverpool shipowner and Conservative M.P. was a toxic individual who had a reputation for callousness.

The Houstons lived on Jersey so that Sir Robert could avail himself of the island s clement tax regime. Lady Houston was suffering from bouts of mental illness. Less than two months after the wedding, the knight died in suspicious circumstances on board their steam yacht the Liberty. He left her 80% of his estate, thereby making her a multi-millionairess. However, she was assessed by the authorities as being mentally incapable. They placed restrictions on what she might do. A few months later the widow displayed enough nous to escape from the island by using the Liberty to sail away from it.

Upon returning to London, Lady Houston had to deal with the issue of the death duties that the government wished to levy upon her late husband's estate. She proved to have the faculties to be able to engage in a round of negotiations with the Treasury over the matter. An agreement was finally struck whereby she paid the state £1.6m without admitting any liability. The affair made her a nationally known figure.

When not engaging in nudism, her ladyship dressed in red, white, and blue garments. She did this as a means of displaying her adoration of the Union flag. She was a great champion of the Empire at a time when many Britons had deep doubts about the morality of its existence and operation. She believed that air power might be able to sustain it.

The Schneider Aviation Trophy was an international flight speed competition. The government was not inclined to furnish money to enable a national team to participate in the contest. Lady Houston's views about the Empire prompted her to offer £100,000 towards the costs of financing a British entry. The Supermarine's.6 aircraft that was built consequently. The plane won the prize by a large margin in 1929. It was powered by a Rolls-Royce R-type engine which was specifically designed and built for air races; the R stood for racing .¹

Her ladyship financed the Houston-Mount Everest Aeronautical Expedition of 1933. This exercise in aerial surveying included Lord Clydesdale's flight over Mount Everest in an aircraft. She regarded the venture as being a means of signalling Britain's rule of India. On a more practical level, it underscored to the aviation industry that it should develop pressurised aircraft cabins.

Lady Houston regarded her wealth and her celebrity as giving her the right to intervene in politics at will. She did so both through the Saturday Review weekly newspaper, which she bought and converted into a conduit for her views, and by sponsoring candidates who were standing in elections. As the 1930s progressed it became increasingly apparent that, for the causes that she championed, she was becoming more of a liability than an asset. In 1936 her ladyship was rendered inconsolable by King Edward VIII's decision to abdicate. She stopped eating and died.

Location: Byron Cottage, North End Avenue, Hampstead, NW3 7HP. Her home for many years.

¹. Insights that were learnt from the development of the R-type were to inform the creation of the Merlin aero-engine that powered both the Hurricane and the Spitfire fighters.

David Backhouse 2024