Sybil Frances Grey

From MyHeritage: Georgina Grey: 1881 England & Wales Census

3 April 1881 Census for residents of [2 Elvaston Place, South Kensington, London SW7 5QH 51.4978255, -0.182921], England

• Georgina Grey, head, widow, female, aged 40 [born about 1841], in East Indies, Naturalised British Subject; Widow of Sir W Grey KCSI
• Sybil T Grey, daughter, single, female, aged 13 [born about 1868], in East Indies, Naturalised British Subject; Scholar
• 3 siblings, 5 servants

Sybil Frances (née Grey), Lady Eden

Bassano Ltd. Bromide print, 1918: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw51871/Sybil-Fr...

The Edens were one of County Durham’s oldest and most distinguished families – Castle Eden originally – Sir Anthony to become a short-lived Prime Minister in the 1950s.

It is to the wild and wanton ways of Lady Sybil, his mother, that recent columns have alluded, however, and to which, shocked, we now return.

Today’s column is very largely based on Robert Rhodes James’s 660-page biography of Sir Anthony, published in 1986 and now pristine-purchased from Amazon for a penny.

Though he acknowledges Lady Sybil’s many good works – the former miners’ hospital in Bishop Auckland long bore her name, the poor blessed it – Rhodes James was invited to write the biography by Sir Anthony’s widow and had access to much of his correspondence.

Everyone thought her a marvellous old lady, generous and kind – except for her children who frequently and almost legally had to bail her out, sometimes on the brink of major scandal.

“I think my mother preferred the simpler relationship which existed between donor and recipient,” wrote the future PM coldly, “than the more complicated one between mother and child.”

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/columnists/16148293.mike-...