Dorothy Una Ratcliffe

Dorothy Una Ratcliffe (20 April 1887 – 20 November 1967), often known as D.U.R., was a socialite, heiress and author. She wrote in the Yorkshire dialect, despite being born in Sussex and brought up in Surrey. She published 49 books, edited a magazine called The Microcosm, travelled all over the world, and was a prolific collector of books, manuscripts and other documents. Life Born 20 April 1887 in Preston, Sussex, Dorothy was the eldest of four children born to George Benson Clough, a barrister originally from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and Rose Emily Russell, a Londoner. Dorothy had two sisters, Winifred and Pauline, and a brother Hugh. As children they were encouraged to pursue an interest in literature and produced handwritten magazines of poems, essays and illustrations. Dorothy was educated at the local grammar school before being sent to finishing schools in Germany and Paris. In Paris she studied singing and shared a teacher with Dame Nellie Melba. In 1909, aged 22, Dorothy married Charles Frederick Ratcliffe at St Stephen's Church, Kensington having met him on a family holiday in the Isle of Wight. Charles was the nephew of the self-made wealthy tycoon Edward Allen Brotherton, later Lord Brotherton of Wakefield. Charles was heir to Brotherton, who was a widower with no children as he had lost his wife and baby in childbirth. The newly married couple moved into a home near to Brotherton's own at Roundhay Hall (now Spire Hospital) in Leeds, West Yorkshire. They would later live at Roundhay Hall themselves. Dorothy's marriage to Charles was not a success due to his affairs. A treatment for a venereal disease that Charles gave to Dorothy left her unable to have children. Divorce would have led to a scandal for Charles and his family so instead D.U.R focused her attentions on her social life and on helping Brotherton with his political career. Around this time, she also began to write plays, poems and character sketches. In 1930, after Brotherton became ill and died, Dorothy was finally able to divorce Charles. She did however keep the name Ratcliffe as her pen name, writing as either Dorothy Una Ratcliffe or D.U.R for the rest of her life.