Woburn Abbey

The Flying Duchess' Room

Many of the rooms in the house have either changed their names or have been used for different purposes over the years. In the nineteenth century this was called the Polonais Room; it is now known as the 'Flying Duchess' Room' in memory of the wife of the 11th Duke. A fine watercolour portrait of her can be seen over the landscape with Windmills. She met her husband Herbrand in India where he was for some time aide-de-camp to the Viceroy, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. Her father was the Archdeacon of Lahore. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and in Switzerland. Shortly after they were married Herbrand's brother, the 10th Duke, died and the young couple found themselves unexpectedly the new Duke and Duchess and owners of Woburn Abbey. Mary was a lady with a multitude of interests: nursing, aviation, ornithology, ice-skating, fishing, photography, painting and handicrafts; she was a first-class shot and excelled at everything she did. Her love of animals is reflected in the charming paintings she collected, some of which are displayed in this room: one of the portraits is of her favourite Pekinese dog, Che Foo. Pekinese have always been a favourite with the family, (Woburn's interest in animals continues with the Safari Park and Stud).. Also displayed over the bookcase is an oil-painting of ducks in flight by a very young Peter Scott in 1935; they became great friends through a common interest. Mary travelled a great deal on the Continent and in her private yacht the Saphire which she also used for bird-watching trips to the northern islands and Iceland. In the secretaire bookcase there are some amusing snaps taken on one of those cruises. She was a very keen and good photographer and loved experimenting: you will notice one of her experiments on the wall to the right of the exit door.

The cabinet in the corner of the room contains her wonderful collection of rare and exotic butterflies and insects. Unfortunately it is not possible to display these specimens as the light would fade and destroy them.

Mary had always been attracted to nursing and during her school years at Cheltenham had attended lectures but her father had forbidden her to continue this activity so it is not surprising that at the turn of the century she designed and built a cottage hospital in Woburn which became a model of its kind. This is now used as a business college called Maryland. Showing her usual determination and competence, she became a fully qualified theatre sister and radiographer.

During the First World War parts of the Abbey, the riding school and indoor tennis court (now demolished), were converted into a temporary ward for wounded soldiers; some 2,000 patients passed through the Abbey Hospital. Mary spent most of her time there, sometimes working twelve to fourteen hours a day. The Marquess still receives letters from people who had been patients of hers at Maryland and at the Abbey, saying what wonderful care they had received.

In 1925 another activity became of great interest to her when she was taken on her first flight from Croydon to Woburn. She engaged a personal pilot and began to take lessons from Mr St Barbe. Mary had been suffering from increasing deafness and she found the higher altitude eased the dreadful buzzing in her ears. In June 1928 Mary accompanied her first pilot Captain Barnard on his attempt to break the record to India. They flew in a Fokker aircraft named Princess Xenia. Unfortunately the attempt had to be abandoned at Bushire Aerodrome due to engine failure. They had taken four days to fly the 2,250 miles to Bushire from Lympne. However, the following year another attempt was made in the same aircraft with a new engine and a new name - Spider. This time they were successful, the flight took eight days. A record flight to the Cape was made in 1930 taking twenty days, 175 flying hours. She piloted the aircraft herself for short periods. A model of the Spider is in the room. Other trips she made were not without incident, she had to make a forced landing in the Sahara because of fuel-pipe trouble and on another occasion was shot at by Berber tribesmen. In between these record-breaking flights Mary flew solo for the first time from a field on Lewsey Farm between Luton and Dunstable. Her instructor, Mr St Barbe, when he realised the responsibility he had taken upon himself in sending her up, said to a fellow pilot that if there had been a gun and bush handy he should have shot himself.

One afternoon in March 1937 she took off in her de Havilland Gipsy Moth aircraft from her hangar in the park on a short flight towards Cambridge to view the floods in the Fen district and to complete her 200 hours of solo flying. Her flight plan had been made out by her pilot Flight-Lieutenant Preston. By tea-time she had not returned and a search was immediately organised by the Duke, but she was never found. Some parts of her aircraft were eventually washed ashore on the sea coast near Yarmouth; amongst the remains were the wing struts which now lean against the wall in this room.