Katharine Asquith

Katharine Asquith with her husband in 1913

Katharine Frances Asquith (née Horner; 9 September 1885 – 9 July 1976) was an English landowner and patron of the arts. During the First World War, she served as a VAD nurse.[1] She was the wife of Raymond Asquith and the daughter-in-law of wartime prime minister Herbert Asquith.

Katharine Horner was the younger daughter of Sir John and his wife Frances, of Mells Manor, Somerset.[2] She was born at Mells Park, Somerset, the ancestrial home of the Horners since the Reformation. Her parents were original members of the exclusive aristocratic social circle "The Souls." In addition to Katharine, the couple had three other children:

  • Cisely Margaret (1883-1972), She was married to the Hon. George Lambton.
  • Mark George (1891-1908), He died from Scarlet Fever.
  • Edward William (1888-1917), He was killed at the Battle of Cambrai. An equestrian statue of Edward stands in St. Andrew's Church, Mells.

Educated by governesses and travel, Katharine developed a love for poetry, philosophy and could read Greek[3][4]

Katharine met her future husband, Raymond Asquith (1878-1916), a barrister and the eldest son of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, in the summer of 1901 at Mells. [5] Subsequent vacations with the Horners in Austria (1903), Venice (1904) and Ireland (1905) and a shared love of poetry brought the two closer together.[6] Katharine and Raymond became engaged in February 1907, and on 25 July 1907, they were married in St. Margarets, Westminster. They made their home at 49 Bedford Square in Bloomsbury and at Mells Manor, where Katharine's parents continued to live.[7] After Sir John died in 1927, Lady Horner continued to live with the family until her own death in 1940. Both Raymond and Katharine were central members of the "Corrupt Coterie," composed largely of children of the Souls and who in the words of Lady Diana Cooper, were "unafraid of words, unshocked by drink, and unashamed of "decadence" and gambling." [8] Katharine and Raymond had three children:

When their third child and only son was born, Asquith wrote from the Front to Katharine about their future plans; they nicknamed the boy "Trim" after Trimalchio, a character in the work of Petronius.[10] Katharine and her friend Lady Diana Manners were both VAD nurses during the war, and Diana recorded that they both gained some temporary relief from their troubles during this period by drugging themselves with morphia.[11] Katharine's nursing career took her to France for a while, and the children were looked after by a nanny.[12]

Raymond was killed in action on 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. Katharine never remarried and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1924.[13] and[14] brought up her children in the Catholic faith.[10] She arranged for a private chapel to be built in the manor house.[15]

Her two brothers having died, Katharine inherited Mells Manor after her parents' death. She welcomed many Catholic writers and thinkers such as Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Hollis, Douglas Woodruff, Siegfried Sassoon, Hilaire Belloc, Martin D'Arcy, and Ronald Knox. Katharine first met Evelyn Waugh on a Hellenic Cruise in September 1933 and struck up a close friendship that lasted until his death.[16]In a letter to Katharine, Waugh revealed "There is no one whose opinion I value more than yours."[17]She became godmother to Waugh's son, Auberon, and Waugh dedicated his biography of Ronald Knox to Katharine and Lady Daphne Acton. Another prominent convert, close friend and frequent visitor to Mells was the poet Siegfried Sassoon who was received into the Roman Catholic church in 1957 and later buried in St. Andrew's churchyard.

After the Second World War, in 1947, she welcomed Monsignor Ronald Knox to Mells as her unofficial private chaplain.[18] Knox, himself a convert, had been Roman Catholic chaplain at the University of Oxford before the war. While a resident, Knox finished his re-translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible into English.Early in 1957, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Katharine cared for him in person until his death later in the year. He was buried in the churchyard at St Andrew's, where Katharine was also buried on her death in 1976, at the age of 90.[19]

Both Katharine and Raymond are portrayed in Phoebe Traquair's apse mural in All Saints, Thorney Hill, England.

References

  1. ↑ "Katharine Frances Asquith (née Horner)". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  2. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Page 3037
  3. ↑ Mackenzie, Jeanne (1986). Children of the Souls: A Tragedy of the First World War. Chatto and Windus. Page 18
  4. ↑ Beauman, Nicola (1987). Cynthia Asquith. London: Hamish Hamilton. Page 113
  5. ↑ Jolliffe, John (1980). Raymond Asquith: Life and Letters. London: Collins. Page 93
  6. ↑ Jolliffe, pages 93-94
  7. ↑ Mackenzie. page 80
  8. ↑ Ziegler, Philip (1981). Diana Cooper. London: Hamish Hamilton. Page 32
  9. ↑ "Obituary:Lady Helen Asquith". The Telegraph. 8 July 2000. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 "Obituary:The Earl of Oxford and Asquith". The Telegraph. 17 January 2011. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Pamela Horn (15 October 2013). Country House Society: The Private Lives of England's Upper Class After the First World War. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-1-4456-3538-5.
  12. ↑ Caroline Dakers (19 September 2013). The Countryside at War 1914-1918. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 79–. ISBN 978-1-4721-1337-5.
  13. ↑ Helen McPhail; Philip Guest (15 March 2001). Sassoon & Graves: On the Trail of the Poets of the Great War. Pen and Sword. pp. 224–. ISBN 978-1-4738-1471-4.
  14. ↑ Anthony Powell (1983). The strangers all are gone. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-063279-2.
  15. ↑ Gerald Gliddon (October 2002). The aristocracy and the Great War. Gliddon Books.
  16. ↑ Hastings, Selena (1995).Evelyn Waugh: A Biography. London: Minerva. Page 284
  17. ↑ Hastings Page 284
  18. ↑ Violet Powell (1998). The Departure Platform. W. Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-434-00507-9.
  19. ↑ "A Magical Day at Mells: WPA 'Siegfried Sassoon at Mells' Event 28 May 2005". War Poets Association. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
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