‘It looks like the back room of a bordello’. With which comment a friend of Maud Russell dismissed the famous Whistler decorations at Mottisfont Abbey, that Mrs Russell had commissioned, and which are amongst the National Trust’s prize items.
Maud Russell was one of a number of very wealthy women who lived in this part of Hampshire around 1940. Amongst others were Edwina Mountbatten of Broadlands and Lady Cooper of Hursley (who later moved to Jermyns). Others who had money in their own right or rich husbands were Mrs Mary Grant Singer of Norman Court, West Tytherley, Mrs Aline Dalgety of Lockerley Hall, Mrs Lilian Crosfield of Embley Park.
What is noticeable is how, with the exception of Lady Cooper, these ladies are all recorded as playing an active part in village life. Thus during the war, they would take part in local activities, both as presidents of various village societies and on occasion participating in local events.
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For example, Edwina Mountbatten was a staunch supporter of Romsey’s hospital and of other medical associations, such as the local Nursing Association which supported the work of local district nurses.
She also played an internationally important role in St John Ambulance Brigade and the Red Cross.
Aline Dalgety became a county councillor and Justice of the Peace during the war and took a leading role in the organisation of the county’s Women’s Land Army and the welfare of the women who participated in it.
These two ladies both lived in houses which had been the family home for several generations. The others were incomers whose families moved on.
Maud Russell went out collecting funds for the penny-a-week scheme for the Red Cross whenever she was in Mottisfont. In the latter part of the war she worked for Naval Intelligence, along with the author Ian Fleming.
It was common for them to host local events at their homes. Thus in September 1943, Mary Grant Singer entertained the children of West Tytherley church Sunday School to tea at Norman Court.
They also supported their local Women’s Institutes who usually had a meeting in their grounds each summer. Thus in the summer of 1940, East Tytherley W.I. was invited to Lockerley Hall and Mottisfont to Mottisfont Abbey, although in the event that meeting had to be cancelled.
It is interesting that the participation of the extremely wealthy in local affairs is much less common nowadays. It is as though their wartime connections with the local communities were the last gasp of an earlier era, as villages have changed their characteristics in a number of ways.
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