Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon
British noble (1859–1917)
Constance Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon (22 April 1859 – 28 October 1917), was a British patron of the arts. She was a close friend of Oscar Wilde, who dedicated his play A Woman of No Importance to her; other celebrated friends included Nellie Melba, whose success in London was largely due to Lady Ripon's support, Nijinsky and Diaghilev.
Biography
She was born in 1859 to Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea and his wife, Elizabeth, a writer and notable convert to Catholicism. She married St George Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale, and had a daughter, Gladys Mary Juliet. After Lonsdale's death she married Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon in 1885, then known by his courtesy title of Earl de Grey. She was thus known as Lady de Grey until her husband succeeded to his marquisate in 1909, when she became Marchioness of Ripon. They had no children.
Lady Ripon was a patron of the arts, supporting the restoration of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. When Jean and Édouard de Reszke were in London to perform at the Royal Opera House, she often entertained them during which she treated them like royal family members. She exerted great influence through the impresario Augustus Harris, because of her ability to persuade important people to purchase season tickets in advance.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.