Harriet Mordaunt

Harriet Sarah, Lady Mordaunt (née Moncreiffe; 7 February 1848 – 9 May 1906) was the Scottish wife of an English baronet and member of parliament, Sir Charles Mordaunt. She was the respondent in a sensational divorce case in which the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was embroiled, and after a counter-petition led to a finding of mental disorder she spent the remaining 36 years of her life out of sight in a series of privately rented houses, and then in various private lunatic asylums, finally ending her days in Sutton, Surrey. Early life and family Lady Mordaunt was born Harriet Moncreiffe. Some writers have referred to her as "Lady Harriet Mordaunt", but that style would only be correct if she had been the daughter of an earl, marquess, or duke. Her parents were Sir Thomas Moncreiffe of that Ilk, 7th Baronet (1822–1879) of Moncreiffe House, Perthshire, Scotland, and his wife, Lady Louisa Hay-Drummond (died 1898), eldest daughter of the Earl of Kinnoull. They had sixteen children, including eight "beautiful" daughters, most of whom were in due course "extremely well married". Lady Mordaunt was their fourth child and fourth daughter. Her sister Georgina, the Moncreiffes' third daughter, known to the family as "Georgy", became Georgina Ward, Countess of Dudley, her husband having been dubbed "frizzle wig" by Lady Mordaunt. In 1920, Margot Asquith recalled that "groups of beauties like the Moncrieffes ... were to be seen in the salons of the 'eighties. There is nothing at all like this in London today". Sir Thomas Moncreiffe served in the Grenadier Guards and become a captain in the Atholl Highlanders. He was captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The atmosphere at Moncreiffe has been described as "free and easy". During her childhood, Harriet Moncreiffe was acquainted with Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and, after his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, attended informal parties, including dances at Abergeldie Castle, near Balmoral, which the Prince used as his Highland home. In November 1865, she was invited to Sandringham, the Waleses' house in Norfolk, and subsequently joined the Prince and Princess on various occasions in London. Lady Mordaunt grew up to be pretty and flirtatious, but also headstrong and, ultimately, rather unbalanced.