Lady Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton
American socialite and philanthropist
Lady Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton CBE (born Natalie Scarritt Wales in Cohasset, Massachusetts, August 6, 1909; died Andover, New Jersey, January 14, 2013) was an American socialite and philanthropist best known for organizing the "Bundles for Britain" campaign during World War II.
Early life
Born Natalie Scarritt Wales in Cohasset, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of inventor and businessman Nathaniel B. Wales, inventor of the Kelvinator refrigerator. Educated at the elite Spence School in New York City, classmates remembered her as "annoyingly popular with the opposite sex"; she once invited thirty boys to a tea party - and no other girls. She was touring Europe at seventeen and almost married an English aristocrat, until her parents brought her home and sent her to Columbia University instead. She had her formal society debut the next year.
She married a stockbroker named Kenelm Winslow in 1929; they had two children, her daughters Natalie "Bubbles" (1930-1988) and Mary-Chilton "Mimi" (1934-2014), before they divorced. She married diplomat Edward Latham in 1937, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1939.
Bundles for Britain
Shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940, Natalie Latham sent a telegram to his wife Clementine asking what the British needed to help fight the war; Clementine replied that they needed warm socks for British sailors. Latham set to work, organizing her society friends and carefully following British Navy regulations. "Hopelessly fond of organizing" as she said of herself and with many Americans anxious to help, "Bundles to Britain" soon became a major enterprise, raising money through a variety of means and shipping millions of dollars' worth of goods to Britain - clothing, blankets, ambulances, X-ray machines, hospital beds, oxygen tents, surgical instruments, blood transfusion kits, tinned food and children’s cots. An auction in England featured several items donated by the queen; Andrew Carnegie's wife made a major donation, actress Joan Crawford encouraged fans to send money to "Bundles" instead of buying her holiday gifts, and Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at a fundraiser.
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