Hilda Balfour

Born in Paddington in 1862, Hilda Balfour was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Paddington on 22 October 1862. Her parents were Charles Balfour and his wife Maria Ermelinda Balfour, a British Subject born in Portugal. At the time of her birth, the family were living at 3 Cleveland Terrace, Hyde Park.

The 1861 census taken the previous year shows them living at the same address. Charles Balfour was elsewhere the night of the census but Mrs Balfour gave ‘Wine Merchant’s Wife’ as her rank. Clara had three older siblings: Minnie (aged 7), Charles Edward (aged 5) and Ermelinda (aged 4). Also present that night were five servants, including a cook and a footman.

On 16 April 1879 at Easthampstead in Berkshire she married Edward Southwell Russell, 24th Lord de Clifford, a baron who owned some 13,000 acres in County Mayo, Ireland. The marriage produced one son, Jack, born in 1884.

The 1881 census shows Lady de Clifford, still aged only 18, living with husband at Hints Hall in Staffordshire. Also present on the night of the census were 11 live-in servants.

Lord de Clifford died of consumption, aged only 39, on 6 April 1894 at San Remo in Italy. His widow died the following year at the Savoy Hotel in London on 7 February 1895. Her home address at the time of her death was 125 Victoria Street, Westminster. She left effects valued at £2890.

Photographed by Ghémar Frères of Brussels.