Blanche Dugdale


Blanche Elizabeth Campbell "Baffy" Dugdale was a British author and Zionist. Chaim Weizmann called her, "an ardent, lifelong friend of Zionism".

Early life

She was born Blanche Elizabeth Campbell Balfour on 23 May 1880 at 32 Addison Road, Holland Park, London, the eldest of the five children of Eustace James Anthony Balfour, an architect and the youngest brother of the prime minister Arthur Balfour, and his wife, Lady Frances Campbell, daughter of George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll. She was educated at home, and received no formal education. She was always known as "Baffy", a childhood rendering of her surname, Balfour.

Career

Dugdale worked in the Naval Intelligence Department.
Dugdale was associated with the League of Nations Union in various role from its founding in 1920 until it ended; and was one of the British delegates to 1932's League Assembly. In 1936, she published a two-volume biography Arthur James Balfour about her uncle, the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.
She always signed her articles Blanche E. C. Dugdale, but everyone knew her as Baffy Dugdale. Chaim Weizmann called her, "an ardent, lifelong friend of Zionism".

Personal life

On 18 November 1902, she married Edgar Trevelyan Stratford Dugdale, a Lloyds of London underwriter and "name", the second son of William Stratford Dugdale of Merevale Hall, Atherstone, Warwickshire. It was at her suggestion that Edgar made his abridged translation of Mein Kampf. They had two children, Frances and Michael, and lived at no. 1 Roland Gardens, South Kensington, London.

Later life

Dugdale died on 16 May 1948 at Kilkerran House, by Maybole, Ayrshire, the home of her daughter and son-in-law Sir James Fergusson, 8th Baronet.