Pamela Smith

Lady Pamela Margaret Elizabeth Berry (née Smith), Baroness Hartwell, by Bassano Ltd, 1938

Lady Pamela Margaret Elizabeth Smith Berry, Baroness Hartwell (1915 - 7 January 1982) was an English socialite, included in The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton and part of the Bright Young Things crowd.[1] She was known for her political salon and was one of Britain's museum leaders.[2]

Biography

Lady Pamela Margaret Elizabeth Smith was born in 1915, the daughter of F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead and Margaret Eleanor Furneaux.[3][2][4]

In 1930 she was included in The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton, of her and her sister Eleanor Smith, Beaton said "The Ladies Eleanor and Pamela Smith are both woodland creatures, elfin and puckish, with their lowered chins, berry-brown complexions and the dark eyes of wild animals. Pamela is like the little Robinetta of Sir Joshua Reynolds with the thrush on her raised shoulder. Eleanor is like Leonardo’s John the Baptist. With black hair and scarlet beads, they seem just to have emerged from a garishly coloured caravan, they look to have the wisdom of gypsy children and their over-the-shoulder glances are as fleetingly nervous."[5]

On 7 January 1936 Lady Pamela Smith married Michael Berry, Baron Hartwell,[3] chairman and editor in chief of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph of London.[2][4] They had four children together: Adrian Berry, 4th Viscount Camrose (1937-2016), Hon. Nicholas William Berry (1942-2016), Hon. Harriet Mary Margaret Berry (b. 1944), Hon. Eleanor Agnes Berry (b. 1950).[3]

Starting from the 1950s she travelled as an observer of American Presidential candidates on their press planes and buses.[2]

From 1973 to 1978 she served on the advisory council of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Since 1974 she was chairman of the British Museum Society and in 1979 she was appointed a trustee of the British Museum.[2]

She was president of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers and active in the British section of the Franco-British Council.[2]

She died on 7 January 1982.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ "Eminent Victorians - 23 May 1928, Wed • Page 19". The Guardian: 19. 1928. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "LADY HARTWEL L DIES IN BRITAIN AT AGE 67; FRIEND OF STA TESMEN". The New York Times. 1982. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003
  4. ↑ Beaton, Cecil (1933). The Book Of Beauty. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
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