Edith Balfour Lyttelton
| Edith Balfour Lyttelton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | Novelist, spiritualist |
Dame Edith Sophy Lyttelton, GBE (née Balfour; 1865, Saint Petersburg, Russia – September 1948, UK) was a British novelist, World War I-era activist and spiritualist.
The daughter of Archibald Balfour, a London businessman and merchant in Russia, Edith Balfour was educated privately and moved in the aristocratic circle of friends known as the "Souls", which included A. J. Balfour, George Curzon, Margot Tennant (later Asquith), and Alfred Lyttelton, whom she married at Bordighera on the Italian Riviera in April 1892 after the death of his first wife. Together they had two surviving children, including Oliver Lyttelton (later 1st Viscount Chandos).
Activism
During their visit to South Africa in 1900 she developed a high regard for 1st Viscount (Alfred) Milner, and helped establish the Victoria League in 1901 with Violet Markham and Violet Cecil to promote the imperial vision advocated by Milner. The League brought together high-ranking women from different sides of the political divide on the common ground of the empire. She served as its Honorary Secretary and also supported the Women's Tariff Reform Association.
She served on the Executive of the National Union of Women Workers (founded in 1895) and as Chairwoman of the Personal Service Association (founded in 1908, to alleviate distress caused by unemployment in London). At the outbreak of World War I she was a founder of the War Refugees Committee. She was later made Deputy Director of the Women's Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1917, served on the Central Committee of Women's Employment from 1916–1925, and as Vice-Chairman of the Waste Reclamation Trade Board from 1924–1931. She was also the British substitute delegate in Geneva to the League of Nations in 1923, 1926–1928, and 1931.
Spiritualism
After the death of her husband she became interested in spiritualism and was a member, and President from 1933 to 1934, of the council of the Society for Psychical Research. Spiritualism heavily influenced her works, The Faculty of Communion (1925), Our Superconscious Mind (1931), and Some Cases of Prediction (1937), as well her biography of Florence Upton (1926).
Writings
She wrote a novel, The Sinclair Family (1926), an account of her travels in the Far East and India, Travelling Days (1933), and published a biography of her former husband in March 1917. Among her seven plays, two were inspired by her campaign against sweated labour, Warp and Woof and The Thumbscrew.
She also translated Edmond Rostand's Les deux pierrots. She was encouraged by her close friendship with George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. After 1918 she also lobbied for the foundation of a national theatre in London and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre.
Honours
She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1917 and was named Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1929.
Death
She died in September 1948 from undisclosed causes.