Lady Helen Cynthia ColvilleDCVO DBE OStJ JP FRCM (néeMilnes, laterCrewe-Milnes; 20 May 1884 – 15 June 1968) was an English courtier and social worker, serving as aWoman of the Bedchamber toQueen Mary, while at the same time devoting her energies to alleviating the suffering ofShoreditch, one of the poorest areas of theEast End of London.
Colville was the third daughter ofRobert Milnes, who succeeded when she was 15 months old as2nd Baron Houghton (giving her the style "The Honourable"), by his first wife Sibyl, daughter of Sir Frederick Graham (of theGraham baronets of Netherby) and Lady Jane St Maur. She had an older sister, an older brother, and a twin sister.[citation needed]
Her mother died young, and Cynthia and her siblings lived for a time with their unmarried uncle, the3rd Baron Crewe, before rejoining their father, aLiberal politician when he was posted to Dublin asLord Lieutenant of Ireland (from 1892 to 1895).[citation needed]
In 1895, having inherited Lord Crewe's estates on his death the previous year, her father adopted the surname Crewe-Milnes and was createdEarl of Crewe, giving her the style of "Lady". In 1899, Lord Crewe remarried to Lady Margaret Etrenne Hannah "Peggy" Primrose (1881–1951), daughter of the5th Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister from 1894 to 1895, and his wifeHannah, an heiress to theRothschild fortune. Cynthia's new stepmother was only 18; Cynthia and her stepmother were but three years apart in age.
After studying music at theRoyal College of Music for four years, where her piano teacher wasJohn Arthur St. Oswald Dykes, she married the Honourable George Charles Colville, younger son of the1st Viscount Colville of Culross and his wife Cecile (née Carrington), on 21 January 1908. Their children were:
She started her work inShoreditch, which was a slum (a "socially derelict square mile", as her son described the area), beforeWorld War I, focusing oninfant mortality. The Socialist borough council co-opted her to their public health committee.[1]
In September 1950, she was elected the first chairman of theBritish Epilepsy Association.[2]
In February 1952 while serving asWoman of the Bedchamber toQueen Mary it fell to Colville to inform Queen Mary of the death of her sonGeorge VI.[3]
In 1952 she was appointed alay justice atBow Street Magistrates' Court.[citation needed]
She raised eyebrows when she introduced a commoner,Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis, albeit aself-made man, into her own stratum of society, persuading the Queen to invite him to dinner on the royal yachtHMYVictoria and Albert at theCowes Week regatta.[4]
In 1948, Shoreditch Council renamed ahousing estate on Felton Street estate as "the Colville estate" in honour of her long association. In 1963, Lady Cynthia published her autobiography,Crowded Life: The Autobiography of Lady Cynthia Colville.[5]
She is one of the very few "double dames", having been created a dame in two separate orders: theOrder of the British Empire and theRoyal Victorian Order.
She died on 15 June 1968, aged 84, at 4 Mulberry Walk, Chelsea, London, England.[citation needed]
