Alida Brittain

Lady Brittain and her husband, Sir Harry

Dame Alida Luisa Brittain DBE (née Harvey; 12 June 1883[1] – 5 January 1943) was a British harpist. She was the wife of politician and journalist Sir Harry Brittain.[2]

The only daughter of businessman Sir Robert Harvey and Franco-Peruvian Alida María Godefroy, Alida was born in Iquique (then in Peru),[3] where her father made millions as a saltpetre producer. Her maternal grandfather was Émile Godefroy of Pessac, Bordeaux. In 1885, the family returned to Cornwall, where her father purchased the Trenoweth estate and several properties in nearby Devon.[4][5] She had five younger brothers, including politician Sir Samuel Emile Harvey.[6]

A noted harpist and composer, she was elected a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth. In 1927, she was honorary musical director of the National Conservative Musical Union. She served as president of the Society of Women Journalists from 1929–32, and was a Member of the Celtic Congress in 1933.[2]

She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1929 New Year Honours, for political and public services.[7]

She married Harry Brittain in 1905. They had two children: Robert Edmund Godefroy Brittain and Alida Gwendolen Rosemary Brittain.[8]

She died suddenly at home in Headley, Hampshire, in 1943, aged 59.[2]

Legacy

Alida, Saskatchewan is named in her honour.[9]

References

  1. ^ 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. ^ a b c "Lady Brittain". The Times. 7 January 1943. p. 7.
  3. ^ 1891 England Census
  4. ^ Edmundson, W. (2011). The Nitrate King: A Biography of "Colonel" John Thomas North. Springer. p. 64. ISBN 9780230118799. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Sir Robert Harvey". The Cornish in Latin America. University of Exeter. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  6. ^ Burke, Bernard (1898). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison & sons. p. 698. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  7. ^ "No. 33472". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 February 1929. p. 1440.
  8. ^ Burke, Sir Bernard, ed. (1939). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (97th ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2727.
  9. ^ Barry, Bill; Barry, William R. (2003). People places: contemporay Saskatchewan place names. People Places Pub. ISBN 9781894022927.