Portrait statuette of Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959), as President of the Women’s Legion
Margaret Wrightson (Stockton on Tees 1877 - 1976)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1920
Materials
Cast bronze and silver plated.
Measurements
320 x 105 x 105 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1655801
Summary
Sculpture, bronze, with silver plate; statuette of Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959) as President of the Women’s Legion; Margaret Wrightson (Stockton on Tees 1877-1976); 1920. A bronze statuette depicting Lady Londonderry in her wartime role as founder and President of the Women’s Legion, the most significant of all the women’s voluntary associations set up during the First World War. The aim of the Legion was to free up men for military service by recruiting women to fill their roles.
Full description
A bronze portrait statuette of Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959), depicting her as President of the Women’s Legion, by Margaret Wrightson. Lady Londonderry is shown standing, in uniform, her hands crossed in front of her. On an integral bronze base, bearing the artist’s signature and date, which is mounted on a rectangular wooden socle. To the front of the wooden socle is pinned the badge of the Women’s Legion, above an embossed dedication plate in silver-plated copper, recording the figure as a gift from the motor drivers within the Legion. On the other three sides of the base are further embossed silver-plated plates, with lists of company numbers within the Royal Army Service Corps (R.A.S.C.) and the locations of their embarkment for France, and the workshops and training school in London (at Osterly Park). The plate at the back records the locations in France where the motor companies were stationed, within the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, until her father-in-law's death in 1915 still Viscountess Castlereagh, began the First World War as head of the Women’s Land Army and Colonel-in-Chief of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve. However in 1915, at a time when the army was suffering critical shortages of manpower, she decided to found the Women’s Legion, generally regarded as having been the most successful and important of all the women’s voluntary associations set up during the First World War. It was a strictly non-political, non-denominational organisation, membership of which also took no account of class. Members wore uniforms and more broadly the Woman's Legion was avowedly militaristic in its structure and approach, members wearing khaki uniforms and a badge depicting Victory holding a wreath, jocularly known by some as "the lady with the frying pan". Lady Londonderry ensured that the levels of organisational efficiency remained constantly high. Her aim was for women ‘to do their duties as women, and not as makeshift men’, thus ‘to replace working men with working women’ and thereby releasing men for active service. The Legion began by training women as cooks, but developed to include Agricultural, Canteen, Cookery and Motor Transport sections. At its height some 40,000 women worked for the Legion, which Lady Londonderry refounded in the Second World War, when it mainly provided assistance to civilians on the home front. Other contributions by the Londonderrys to the war effort in 1914-18 included the conversion of Londonderry House into a hospital, and Seaham House in County Durham as a convalescent hospital. The statuette by Margaret Wrightson must have been commissioned by the Motor Drivers within the Legion. The embossed plates provide detailed information on the various companies within which the women worked and the key locations where they were based. After the end of the war, several hundred Legion drivers were again sent out to France to replace male drivers, in an attempt to speed up the process of demobilisation. In the Victory Parade held in July 1919, 120 of the motor drivers were selected to represent the Legion. Headed by Lady Londonderry, who had to be trained in drill and words of command beforehand, the detachment marched for seven miles through London, ending before Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen. The statuette may well have been commissioned following the parade. King George V acknowledged the contribution made by women’s voluntary organisations during World War I, when he said that ‘When the history of our country’s share in the war is written, no chapter will be more remarkable than that relating to the range and extent of women’s participation.’ (de Courcy 1992, p. 133). Along with the contributions of women in other spheres, for example as factory workers, the achievements of the Women’s Legion helped to pave the way for more permanent acknowledgement of women’s rights within society, most immediately in the aftermath of the conflict the right to vote. The sculptor of the statuette, Margaret Wrightson, was a members of an old Northumberland family that had long been neighbours and friends of the Vanes, later the Marquesses of Londonderry. In the later nineteenth century, Margaret’s father the marine engineer and politician Sir Thomas Wrightson (1839-1921) developed a close friendship with the 6th Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry, so that Margaret Wrightson also in time became a family friend. As a professional sculptor, she enjoyed a long and reasonably successful career, much of her work consisting in portrait commissions, although she also made a number of larger works. Her first commission from the Londonderrys was from the 6th Marchioness, for a fountain for Wynyard Park, whilst she subsequently received several commissions from Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry (for more information on Margaret Wrightson, see the Mairi Fountain, NT 1221060). Jeremy Warren October 2022
Provenance
Presented to Edith, 7th Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959); by descent; accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, in 2013.
Marks and inscriptions
On bronze base, towards back:: Margaret Wrightson / Sc. / 1920 Rear face of wooden socle:: H.Q. (G.H.Q.) B.E.F. WIMEREUX No. 1 AREA. DUISANS No. 3 [AREA.] PERONNE No. 5 [AREA.] POPERINGHE CALAIS DISTRICT ROUEN [DISTRICT] Front face of wooden socle:: LADY LONDONDERRY PRESIDENT OF THE WOMEN’S LEGION FROM THE MOTOR DRIVERS APRIL 1916 …. 1920 MAY Inscriptions on badge: WL / ORA ET LABORA [Women’s Legion / Prayer and Work] Proper left face of wooden socle:: R.A.S.C. 700 M.T. COY 978 M.T. COY 728[ M.T. COY] 985 [M.T. COY] 770 [ M.T. COY] 1084 [M.T. COY] 804 [ M.T. COY] 1124 [M.T. COY] 882 [ M.T. COY] 1154 [M.T. COY] 977 [ M.T. COY] 1156 [M.T. COY] LONDON. M.T. REPAIR. DEPOT BATTERSEA OSTERLY PARK. TRAINING SCHOOL .H.M.T. DEPOT. Proper right face of wooden socle:: R.A.S.C. 52 M.T. COY 612 M.T. COY 274 [ M.T. COY] 613 [M.T. COY] 348 [ M.T. COY] 614 [M.T. COY] 369 [ M.T. COY] 615 [M.T. COY] 373 [ M.T. COY] 620 [M.T. COY] 381 [ M.T. COY] 623 [M.T. COY] 606 [ M.T. COY] 650 [M.T. COY] NO. 1 RESERVE. DEPOT. LEE. NO. 1 M.T. EMBARKATN. DEPOT. AVONMOUTH DOCK
Makers and roles
Margaret Wrightson (Stockton on Tees 1877 - 1976), sculptor
References
De Courcy, 1992: Anne de Courcy. Circe: the life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992., esp. pp. 108-110, 130-36