Rose Champion de Crespigny


Rose Champion de Crespigny was an English artist and author, who published many novels as "Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny".
Rose was the daughter of Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key and his wife, Lady Charlotte Lavinia. She was born 9 November 1859 in Kensington, and she was baptised 15 December 1859 at St John's, Notting Hill.
As an artist, her paintings tended toward landscape; her writing, after early forays into genealogical and local history, soon settled into popular fiction. Her work was described in a contemporary review as having "a certain graceful facility". She was a leading member of the Ridley Art Club, the Lyceum Club in Piccadilly, and of the British College of Psychic Science.
Rose married Philip Augustus Champion de Crespigny, a Royal Navy officer and son of Sir Claude William Champion de Crespigny, 3rd Baronet, on 1 October 1878 in Westminster. They had four children, including Frederick Philip Champion de Crespigny, who inherited the baronetcy, as the 7th Baronet, the year before his death:

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