Rosamund Grosvenor
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Rosamund Mary Dorothy Grosvenor (5 September 1888 – 30 June 1944) was an English socialite and the first love of English writer Vita Sackville-West.
Grosvenor was born in London, the daughter of the Honorable Algernon Henry Grosvenor and his wife, the former Catherine Simeon, and was one of the debutantes at the Debutante Ball at the court of King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace in 1905.[1] Stated in the article of the event:
“Among others of this season’s debutantes may be mentioned Miss Rosamund Grosvenor, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Algernon Grosvenor.”
The New York Times, 5 April 1905
Rosamund Grosvenor lived with her parents in Seal, near Sevenoaks, Kent, until 1908. She married Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander Lynch on 10 March 1924, and they had two children.[2] R
Family History[edit]
The founder of the Grosvenor family, a certain William Grand Veneur, came to England in the service of William the Conqueror, and was given possessions in Northwest England (just outside Chester, where Eaton Hall now stands).[3] His descendant, Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, married Mary Davies, heiress to 500 acres of virgin land on the outer borders of London, in 1677.[4] This plot became the source of the family's immense wealth as it developed into the genteel neighborhoods of Mayfair and Belgravia, and remains the foundation of the family's fortunes today. At least 500 roads, squares and buildings bear their family name and titles.[4]
Rosamund's father, the Honourable Algernon Henry Grosvenor, was the fifth son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury, and the grandson of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster. Algernon's mother was Charlotte Arbuthnot Wellesley.
Rosamund and Vita's meeting[edit]
Rosamund Grosvenor and Vita Sackville-West met at school.[5] Rosamund was ten and Vita six when they became fellow pupils at Helen Woolf's School for Girls in Park Lane.[6][7]
Vita invited Rosamund to her county house, Knole, to comfort Vita during the period when her father, "Dada", was serving in the British Army during the Second Boer War. Later, Rosamund attended Vita's morning classes with her governess, Miss Moss, at Knole. Rosamund often spent weekends and other days at Knole.[8]
Rosamund's love for Vita[edit]
Vita fell in love with Rosamund and was with her for a long time. They often shared a bed at Knole and Vita referred to her as "Roddie" or "Rose". Rosamund was a major influence on Vita's orientation and love for women.[9]
In 1911, Vita and Rosamund, accompanied by an old governess, went to Florence, where they stayed at Villa Pestelini. Later, when Vita returned from her holiday in Italy and it was Rosamund's turn to go on holiday, Vita wrote in her diary "After Roddie was gone I cried because I missed her.” Vita later wrote "What a strange thing it is to love a person like Roddie."[9]
Lady Sackville invited Rosamund to their villa on Monte Carlo in 1912 and Rosamund stayed for three weeks. Lady Sackville wrote in her diary "Rosamund is very kind and sensitive", and Vita wrote in her diary "I love her so much".[9] Vita was madly in love with her at the time. Vita spent most of her time with Rosamund, later continuing at Knole, but Lady Sackville became claustrophobic with Rosamund always being with her day and night.[10]
Vita wrote in her diary: "Strange how little I cared, she has no personality, that's why” and "The relationship was superficial and purely physical, because frankly I found her deadly annoying, but I liked her, she had a soft character, but was stupid.”[9]
Relationship ends[edit]
Vita's first poem, titled “A Dancing Elf,"[11] was about Rosamund when she was staying at Villa Pestelini in Florence.[12] It was published in The English Review just weeks before Vita’s marriage. It was dedicated to RG and dated "Florence 1912". The English newspaper, Daily Sketch, picked up on this and speculated as to who RG was. The dedication read:
‘sweet Spirit of the night…for ever young, for ever fair.’
Rosamund wrote before Vita got married: “Don't ask me to come to you, I won't bring it up. I'm devastated. I feel you're slipping away. How can I ever handle this. I'm sick with misery."[13]
By this point, Violet Trefusis had attracted Vita's interest. Vita herself also observed this race, because she wrote with gloomy suspicions about this in her diary: "This jealousy between R(osamund) and V(iolet) ends badly".[13]
Their relationship lasted until Vita got married. Rosamund was one of Vita's bridesmaids.[14][7][15]
Marriage to John Lynch[edit]
Rosamund married[16] Lt. Col. John Alexander Lynch (1896-1956) of HM Forces on 10 March 1924.[17][2] He was the son of James Lynch of Chiswick, and served in the 14th Punjab Regiment.
They had two daughters:[18]
Rosemary Lynch (died 23 April 2008) who married Major Victor Lewis Comyn and bore six children.[19]
Frances Lynch (1930-1 October 2015) who became a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart.[20]
Death[edit]
On 30 June 1944, a V1 Flying Bomb fell on Aldwych and Rosamund Grosvenor Lynch, who was travelling on a bus, was killed along with 45 other people. The explosion also seriously injured over 200 people. She was 55 years old and was working as a nurse at Savoy Chapel in London.[21]
A member of the BBC said: “It was as though a foggy November evening had materialised at the throw of a switch… through the dust and smoke the casement of the bomb lay burning at the corner of Kingsway: three victims lay unmoving at the top of the steps only thirty yards from where we had crouched and huddled and figures were scattered all over the road.”[21]
Upon the death of her lover, Sackville-West wrote: "It has saddened me rather, that somebody so innocent, so silly and so harmless should be killed in this idiotic and violent way."[22][23]
Rosamund's husband died on 19 March 1956, twelve years after his wife.
References[edit]
- ↑ ""Aliens" Letter from England". OTAGO WITNESS (2664). 5 April 1905. p. 67. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Rosamund Grosvenor 1888-1944 - Ancestry®". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
- ↑ "StackPath". www.eatonestate.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Newton, Diana; Lu by, Jonathan (2002). The Grosvenors of Eaton. Eccleston, Cheshire: Jennet Publications. pp. 8–12. ISBN 0-9543379-0-5. Search this book on
- ↑ Priest, Ann-Marie (2006). Great writers, great loves: the reinvention of love in the twentieth century. Melbourne, Vic: Black Inc. p. 70. ISBN 9781863951982. Search this book on
- ↑ Glendinning, Victoria (1983). Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0753819265. Search this book on
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Herstory Spotlight: Vita Sackville-West Wrote Words, Wooed Women, Wanted Woolf". Autostraddle. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
- ↑ "Vita Sackville-West". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 The Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson Manuscripts, Letters and Diaries. Britain’s Literary Heritage. 1988. Search this book on
- ↑ Simkin, John (2010-11-08). "Spartacus Educational: Rosamund Grosvenor and Vita Sackville West". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2022-01-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Public Domain Poetry - The Dancing Elf by Victoria Mary Sackville-West". www.public-domain-poetry.com. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
- ↑ Dennison, Matthew (2014). Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West. St. Martin’s Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780007486960. Search this book on
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Vita Sackville-West Papers. Beinecke Rare Book Library, New Haven, CT: Yale University. Search this book on
- ↑ Nicolson, Nigel; Sackville-West, Vita (1998). Portrait of a Marriage. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0297830023. Search this book on
- ↑ Knight, Rebecca Dinerstein (2020-03-31). "The Fabulous Forgotten Life of Vita Sackville-West". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ↑ "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ↑ "{Lt.Col.} John Alexander LYNCH". genealogy.links.org. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ↑ "{Lt.Col.} John Alexander LYNCH". genealogy.links.org. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ↑ "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ↑ "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com. Retrieved 2022-01-19. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 21.0 21.1 Sites, Community. "30 June 1944 | Aldwych | Bomb Incidents | West End at War". www.westendatwar.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-27. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Rosamund Grosvenor". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ↑ "Liveblogging World War II: June 30, 1944: The Aldwych V-1 Blast". Grasping Reality by Brad DeLong. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
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