Furse was born in Bristol, England, on 23 November 1875, the daughter of poet and critic John Addington Symonds and Janet Catherine North. Her aunt was the painter Marianne North. Educated by governesses and her mother, Furse spent most of her early life in Switzerland and Italy. In 1900 she married the painter Charles Wellington Furse, who died four years later leaving her with two young children. Peter Reynolds Furse and Rear Admiral John Paul Wellington Furse.
Military career
In 1909 Furse joined the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment attached to the Territorial Army. In 1911, she was lodging with the Beresford-Lane family at 66 Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea. On the outbreak of the First World War she was chosen to head the first Voluntary Aid Detachment unit to be sent to France. Aware of her administrative abilities, the authorities decided to place her in charge of the VAD Department in London. Furse realised that the existing number of nurses would prove totally inadequate to deal with the enormous amount of work which might be expected, and in September 1914 she proceeded to France with a number of assistants, these forming the nucleus of the VAD force. In January 1915 she returned to England, and the VAD work was then officially recognised as a department of the Red Cross organisation. She received the Royal Red Cross and was named a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1916, and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in June 1917. Although she considered it a great success being head of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, Furse was unhappy about her lack of power to introduce reforms. In November 1917, she and several of her senior colleagues resigned due to a dispute over the living conditions of the VAD volunteers and the Red Cross refusal to co-ordinate with the Woman's Army group. Furse was immediately offered the post as director of the Women's Royal Naval Service, this was equivalent to the rank of rear admiral. The Royal Navy was the first of the armed forces to recruit women and since 1916 the Women's Royal Naval Service took over the role of cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, code experts and electricians. The women were so successful that other organisations such as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and the Royal Air Force; the Women's Royal Air Force were also established.
Post-war
After the war, Furse joined the travel agency of Sir Henry Lunn. Working mainly in Switzerland, she became an expert skier and did a great deal to popularise the sport with British tourists. Her achievements were acknowledged when she became President of the Ladies' Ski Club. In 1920, Furse formed the Association of Wrens and this led to her becoming head of the Sea Rangers, and for ten years, from 1928 to 1938, was director of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, whose constitution she drafted. Furse's autobiography, Hearts and Pomegranates, was published in 1940. Her last public appearance was at the Conference of Former Scouts in London in September 1952. Furse died in London two months later, and two days after her 77th birthday.
