Dame Clarissa Reid, DBE

CLARISSA BLANCHE (aka DAME CLARISSA REID) DBE

Clarissa Blanche is the daughter of Wiliam Blanche, a journalist of Peckham in London. She married James Guthrie Reid at Valparaiso in Chile, on 29 January 1890. [Herbert Reid, M.C., M.A., The Reids of Kittochside, printed for private circulation by Aird & Coghill, Ltd., Glasgow, 1943]

New York

Mr. and Mrs. Reid spent some time in New York, in the United States of America, arriving there on 26 April 1908. They travelled from Peru via Cristobal in the Canal Zone, aboard the ship Esperanza. New York, Passenger Arrival Lists and NewYork, Passenger Arrival Lists

Return to London and Voluntary Work

Dame Clarissa Reid and her husband, James Guthrie Reid, returned to London in about 1911 and, on the outbreak of the Great War, their house at 2 Queensgate was thrown open as a club for British volunteers from Latin America.There was a large organisation, providing comfort and help during convalescence, with funds for dependants. Clarissa was President of the Workers' Committee and Honorary Secretary of the Anglo-South American Central Depot, and, in recognition of her work with these organisations, she was created a Dame of the Brittish Empire in 1918.

Dame of the British Empire

Dame Clarissa Reid became a Dame of the British Empire in 1918 Wikipedia: List of Dames Commander of the British Empire

Collection of Peruvian Antiquities

When Dame Clarissa died in 1933 she left her husband's collection of Peruvian Antiquities to the British Museum. The British Museum Quarterly describes the collection thus: "By the wishes of the late Dame Clarissa Reid, an important series of Peruvian antiquities has come to the British Museum. These were originally collected by the late James Guthrie Reid (Manager of Messrs Duncan Fox in Peru), whose personal estates covered part of the important prehistoric cemetery of Nasca (in the south of the Republic) which was discovered shortly before the War. The collection embraces some very fine examples of the poly-chrome pottery of the Nasca and Yca valleys, as well as gold and silver objects from coastal sires farther north. Among the more remarkable is the Gold Beaker of the Chimu Period, of the Truxillo Region, illustrated in Pl. XXVII. Textiles, in admiral preservation, are also represented, as well as certain types of wood-carving which are very poorly represented in the British Museum. There are also a few specimens of stone- and copper-work. The collection is not only a valuable supplement to the series in the British Museum, but will fill gaps in the National Collection. T.A.J. British Museum Quarterly, VIII, No. 2 For the complete details of the collection see The British Museum Collection online

Collection of Spanish Colonial Furniture

While they were in Peru, Dame Clarissa and her husband, James Guthrie Reid, acquired a considerable collection of Spanish Colonial Furniture. James Guthrie Reid was the chief representative of Duncan, Fox & Co in South America between 1878 and 1909. He and Clarissa lived most of the time in Lima and the colonial furniture which they brought back with them has been described as the most important holding of its kind in the United Kingdom. When Dame Clarissa died in 1933 she left this collection to her friend Lady Ramsden. In 1955 Lady Ramsden gave 36 items of Hispanic furniture to Leeds in memory of her late husband. See The Temple Newsam House Colonial Leather Box and The Temple Newsham House Spanish Colonial Desk