Lady Sybil Grant (1879 - 1955) – British artist, poet and writer

With grateful thanks to Art Lewry of Hunter Gatherer Ltd. for sending me so much information about Sybil. 

Lady Sybil Myra Caroline Primrose was the eldest child of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and his wife, Hannah de Rothschild, only child of Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818–1874) and a granddaughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836). Through Hannah, as her father's sole heiress, the Mentmore Towers estate passed into the Rosebery family.

Sybil’s father, Lord Rosebery, served as Prime Minister to Queen Victoria from 1894 to 1895. On 28 March 1903, at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, Lady Sybil married Charles John Cecil Grant (1877–1950), a regular soldier who later became a general and a Knight of the Bath. At the time of their marriage Charles was serving in the 1st Battalion Cold Stream Guards based in Aldershot. He later became General Sir Charles John Cecil Grant, KCB, KCVO, DSO.  They had one son, Charles Robert Archibald Grant, who married Pamela Wellesley (born 1912), a granddaughter of Arthur, 4th Duke of Wellington.

During the First World War, Lady Grant was invited to contribute to the Princess Mary’s Gift Book, a book of collected illustrated stories, in the effort to help raise money for the war effort. Other contributions were “A Holiday in Bed” by J. M. Barrie, “Bimbashi Joyce” by A. Conan Doyle, and “Big Steamers” by Rudyard Kipling.  Hodder & Stoughton published the book in 1915 with “All Profits On Sale Given To The Queen’s “Works For Women ” Fund.” As reported in “The New York Times”, Sybil also became the official photographer to the Royal Naval Air Service, in addition to which she produced a weekly war newspaper the ‘Home Letter’ for No. 2 Company, 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards.

Lady Sybil Grant was also a leading supporter of the "Lest We Forget" charitable fund, along with the Reverend Edward Dorling, and on the charity's behalf she organised a fete in the grounds of the family home “The Durdans” each year, when her pottery was often sold and in great demand.

The WW1 poetry collections written by Lady Sybil Grant were “The end of the day: poems” (Hodder &Stoughton, London, 1922) and  “The Unseen Presence” (Erskine Macdonald, London, 1918) – Reilly, p. 144.

Sources: https://eehe.org.uk/?p=25607  and

Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978).