Person    | Female  Born 7/2/1888  Died 9/4/1951

Lady Winifred Fortescue

Categories: Benefactor, Literature, Theatre

Countries: France

Writer and actress. Born as Winifred Beech in a Suffolk rectory. Died France.

1914 she married John Fortescue (1859-1933, librarian, archivist at Windsor Castle and British Army historian), despite being 28 years younger than him. She gave up her stage career and took up an interior decorating and dress designing business until illness forced her to give it up. She then began writing for Punch, the Daily Chronicle and The Evening News, and then started a Women's Page for the Morning Post. In the 1930s Sir John and Lady Fortescue moved to Provence in France, where she began her book writing career with 'Perfume from Provence'. She wrote a number of other books there. The marriage produced no children and her husband died within 2 years of them moving to France, but she stayed on until forced to move out by the German invasion during WW2. She returned at the end of the war and died in Opio, Provence.

Peter Riley, curator of Perfume from Provence, drew our attention to the photo of a miniature version of the Elfin Oak, also by Ivor Innes, which Fortescue wrote about in 'Perfume from Provence’. Peter confirms that (2023) it still  hangs in the porch of the Fortescue's former home in Provence.

Sister-in-law to Emily Fortescue for whom we have a good case as the donor of the nearby clock tower.

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Lady Winifred Fortescue

Creations i

Elfin Oak

For hundreds of years, no one knows for how many, this tree lived its life qu...

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Sir Bernard Eckstein

Sir Bernard Eckstein

Bernard Friedrich Eckstein was the son of Friedrich Gustav Jonathan Eckstein who became wealthy through gold mining activities in South Africa. Bernard lived at his father’s home in Park Lane, Lond...

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1 memorial
Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

Started by Samuel Gurney MP and the barrister, Edward Thomas Wakefield. Founded as the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association it changed its name to include cattle troughs in 1867.  London...

Group, Benefactor, Animals, Food & Drink

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Count Simon Woronzow

Count Simon Woronzow

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Person, Benefactor, Politics & Administration, Russia

1 memorial
Lady Regnart

Lady Regnart

Wife of Sir Horatio Regnart. Lady Regnart was an active member of the Managing Committee of the St Pancras Almshouses 1894-1940, donating and raising funds and also providing for the residents' nee...

Person, Benefactor

3 memorials
John Gordon Crawford

John Gordon Crawford

A wealthy, early member of the Burns Club of London (founded 1868). Undiscovered Dundee by Brian King informs: "... retired Glasgow merchant, who had lived in London for many years, had met the cos...

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1 memorial

Previously viewed

Electricity sub station - Hackney

Electricity sub station - Hackney

Built for the tramway, 1905 - 07.

Building, Industry

1 memorial
East London Toy Factory

East London Toy Factory

Opened by Sylvia Pankhurst as an answer to the dozens of tiny failing workshops where women were paid a pittance. Toys were no longer being imported from Germany, so the factory employed 59 women t...

Building, Children, Commerce, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Greenwich roundels - Collingwood

Greenwich roundels - Collingwood

SE10, King William Walk, Discover Greenwich (Royal Naval College, Pepys Building)

The roundels on the north, river-facing, frontage are occupied by, left to right: Anson, Drake, Cook, Howard, Blake, Benbow, Sandwich, Ro...

1 subject commemorated
Lord Cheylesmore

Lord Cheylesmore

WC2, Victoria Embankment Gardens

{On the large stone plaque at the centre of this sombre memorial:} Major-General Lord Cheylesmore, GBE, KCMG, KCMO, Grenadier Guards. Bo...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Twyford C. of E. High School

Twyford C. of E. High School

Set up by the London Diocesan Board for Schools. It opened as a result of a concerted campaign by local parents. The admission criteria for the school favour students from practising Christian or o...

Place, Education

1 memorial