Pamela Wyndham


Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Wyndham Glenconner Grey, later Lady Glenconner, Viscountess Grey of Fallodon was an English writer. The former wife of Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and later of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, she is one of the by John Singer Sargent which were at the centre of the cultural and political life of their time. Like their parents, they were part of The Souls.

Early life

Wyndham was born on 14 January 1871 at Clouds House in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. She was the daughter of Percy Wyndham and Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell. Her mother was the daughter of Sir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet, and his wife Pamela FitzGerald, daughter of Lord Edward FitzGerald and Pamela Syms. Her father was the son of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield, and his wife Mary Fanny Blunt, the daughter of Reverend William Blunt.
The 1899 portrait of Pamela and her sisters by John Singer Sargent, known as the Wyndham sisters, has been described as "the greatest picture of modern times" by the Times.

Career

In 1919, Wyndham published the successful memoirs of her son, Edward Wyndham Tennant who had been killed during World War I. She also published poems, prose, children's literature, and edited poetry and prose anthologies.
She was friends, among others, with Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Edward Burne-Jones, and was part of the "poetic and literary circle known as the Souls". In 1912, she hosted three lectures by Ezra Pound in her private art gallery. One her greatest friend was Edith Olivier; Olivier was a year younger than Wyndham, and they were childhood friends.

Personal life

In 1895, she married Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner who was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Edward was the eldest surviving son of eleven children born to Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, succeeding to his father's baronetcy upon his death in 1906. In 1911, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Glenconner, of The Glen in the County of Peebles. From 1908, until his death in 1920, he served as Lord Lieutenant of Peeblesshire. His sister, Margot Tennant was married to H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from 1894 until 1928. Together, they were the parents of:
In 1922, she married the widower Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, the Liberal statesman who served as a Member of Parliament, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the British Ambassador to the United States.
Viscountess Grey died on 18 November 1928 at Wilsford Manor in Wilsford, Wiltshire, England. Her second husband died on 7 September 1933 and his Viscountcy became extinct on his death, though he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his cousin, Sir George Grey.

In popular culture

The 2014 book Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton is about the lives of The Wyndham Sisters, Mary, Madeline, and Pamela.

Works