[Lady Henry Somerset]. English philanthropist, born in London on the 3rd of August 1851, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of the 3rd and last Earl Somers. She married in 1873 Lord Henry Somerset, son of the 8th Duke of Beaufort, at one time comptroller of Queen Victoria’s household, from whom she later separated. She became well known as a temperance reformer and interested herself deeply in the reclamation of inebriate women, with this end in view founding the Duxhurst Farm Colony, near Reigate, the first settlement of the kind in England. In connection with it she established a home for destitute children and a “children’s village” for saving infant life. Lady Henry Somerset was for many years president of the National British Women’s Temperance Association, and made a reputation as an able speaker. In 1894 she founded the Woman’s Signal in the interests of women’s work, becoming its editor, and she was also the author of various children’s books and many pamphlets and articles on social work. She died in London on the 12th of March 1921.
