Part of a series of papers and presentations on notable British women overlooked by historians and biographers.
William Cross, FSA Scot, is a writer and researcher based in Newport, Gwent, South Wales. He has written six books on the Carnarvons of Highclere Castle, the backdrop to TV's Downton Abbey and six books on the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales.
This is an illustration of Lady Eveline Miller and her husband, Sir James, on their wedding day, from 1893.
Please contact William Cross, FSA Scot, by email williecross@aol.com
Hostess Sister of Lord Curzon
Named in Dennistoun v Dennistoun Court Case 1925
Hon. Eveline Mary Curzon, Lady Miller, 1864-1934, was a notable hostess in London and in Scotland for over 40 years. She was among those titled women who made a major contribution to hospitals for nursing the wounded during the Great War. Her London home at 45, Grosvenor Square and Scottish mansion of Manderston, Duns, were the centre of receptions, dances and grand balls that brought together many of the leading figures of London and Scottish Society in the early part of the 20th Century. Evie was also a great traveller and a mentor to some of the other women in her family, especially her nieces , Irene, Cynthia and Alexandria Curzon, daughters of her brother George, Lord Curzon.
Eveline ( Evie ) was born at Kedleston, Derbyshire on 16 February 1864, the third daughter of Rev Hon. Alfred Nathanial Holden CURZON the fourth Baron Scarsdale, 1831-1916. Her mother was Blanche Pockington-Senhouse, 1837-1875. The family of the 4th Lord Scarsdale comprised 4 sons and six daughters ( albeit some reports say there were 11 children). Eveline’s notable brother was George Nathaniel Curzon 1859 – 1925 ( later Viscount Curzon Viceroy of India ).
Eveline married wealthy race horse owner James Percy Miller, Bart, Captain of 14th Hussars of Manderston, Berwickshire, on 9 January 1893. Miller was a Captain in the 14th Hussars and saw action in the Boer War, winning the DSO. Twice winner of the Derby, Miller died on 22 January 1906 after a short illness, in his 41st year.
Eveline, Lady Miller, survived her husband by almost 30 years. She died at Manderston on 15 June 1934 after a prolonged illness, aged 70. She is buried with her husband in the pretty Churchyard of Christ Church in Duns, a short distance from Manderston.
William Cross, FSA Scot, first came upon Lady Miller when he was researching ( with Monty Dart ) for " Poor Gwyneth" a biography of Hon. Gwyneth Ericka Morgan ( 1895-1924). The Miller town house in London at 45, Grosvenor Square was leased to Gwyneth's father, Courtenay Morgan, 3rd Lord Tredegar, during the Great War. Gwyneth, and her mother, Katharine, lived sometime in the house, Gwyenth was presented at Court from 45, Grosvenor Square.
Eveline Miller cropped up again in other research as she features in the case of Dennistoun v Dennistoun, from 1925, a scandalous court case that played out for 17 mud-slinging days in the High Court in London, and ran during the closing stages of the life of Eveline's brother, Lord Curzon.
For more information on the Dennistoun case please click below:
http://dennistoun-v-dennistoun.tripod.com/
The Dennistoun case involved an action for damages against Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun the second husband of Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, widow of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, co-discoverer with Howard Carter of the tomb of Tutankhamen.
Acquainted with several of the military Generals of the First War War, Lady Miller is cited in the court proceedings as having introduced Dorothy Muriel Dennistoun, the plaintiff in the case, Colonel Dennistoun's first wife, to General Sir John Cowans, who later became his mistress. Dorothy was well known to the Millers. After the death of Lady Miller's husband, the baronet's title was inherited by James's younger brother, Sir John Alexander Miller ( 1867-1918). He was Dorothy's stepfather. Another link arises in the evidence from Dennistoun v Dennistoun in the coverage of Dorothy's love affair with Oscar Sebhouse, a young soldier ( and a family connection on Lady Miller's mother's family of Pocklington-Senhouse ). Oscar was killed serving with the Coldstream Guards on 18 June 1915.
William Cross, FSA Scot, had conducted considerable research into Lady Miller's antecedants, her siblings, and extracted all the references to her in The Times, Court Circular. A paper together with a detailed timeline with the results of this work are available to researchers involved in considering the same subject. ( By e-mail only.) An illustrated presentation on the life and times of Sir James and Lady Miller is also available.
