Caroline Graham

Caroline Agnes Graham, Duchess of Montrose (née Beresford; 21 August 1818 – 16 November 1894), styled Dowager Duchess of Montrose after 1874, was a notable British racehorse owner, aristocrat, and socialite.

She was described as a "wildly extravagant woman" who "strode across the racing scene", and was popularly known as the "Red Duchess", from both her scarlet racing colours and her habit of dressing from head to foot in that colour at race meetings. She betted heavily, hardly ever missed attending a race meeting where her horses were competing, and associated almost exclusively with followers of the turf. Her grandfather was William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, third son of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone and younger brother of George Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford. One of her brothers was William Horsley Beresford, 3rd Baron Decies.

She proved herself a true scion of this famous Irish stock, the harum scarum (i.e. reckless, impetuous) family of Beresford; she lived up fully to its reputation for eccentricity as well as equestrian prowess. "The Beresfords had all profited immensely from the Irish Church. Twenty-eight of them were pensioned on its revenues, receiving nearly $5,000,000 but the Decies had the richest pickings. The first Baron Decies was Archbishop of Tuam, which paid him $1,000,000 and both his younger sons got a fat thing from the church". "At an early age she developed a reputation for her beauty, her reckless, and her risqué doings".

Marriages and issue She married thrice: Firstly in 1836, aged 18, to James Graham, 4th Duke of Montrose, of Buchanan Castle in Stirlingshire (re-built by him in 1852) and 45 Belgrave Square in London, a Scottish nobleman by whom she was the mother of Douglas Beresford Graham, 5th Duke of Montrose. She and her first husband were both survivors of the train involved in the Atherstone rail accident of 1860. They had six children, of whom only three reached adulthood.

Secondly in 1876, aged 58, she married the Scottish aristocrat and millionaire William Stuart Stirling-Crawfurd, of Milton the regulating body of British horseracing. He was the patron of the racehorse trainer Alec Taylor, Senior, whom he financed in 1870 in the creation of the now famous Manton training stables on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, which Taylor established as his base. The marriage was very happy, as both parties shared the same passion for the turf and were of similar age. She continued to use the title "Duchess of Montrose" for the rest of her life. The marriage was without issue. He died in 1883 at his house in Cannes, South of France, without issue. After his death she "apparently resolved to devote the remainder of her life to two objects: the winning of races and the erection of a magnificent and costly mausoleum in his memory". ). Her family "cordially detested him".

Career on the turf Silk-woven portrait of Fred Archer (1857–1886), described as "the best all-round jockey that the turf has ever seen", wearing the racing colours Scarlet jacket and cap of "Mr Manton" (Dowager Duchess of Montrose). It was rumoured that she proposed marriage to him after his wife died in 1884 Her second husband Stirling-Crawfurd moved his horses from Manton to the Bedford Lodge stables on the Bury Road in Newmarket (headquarters of the British horseracing industry) in Suffolk, under the trainer Joe Dawson. In 1883 he moved his horses south across the road to Bellevue Lodge, the lease of which he acquired from the prominent French racehorse owner Claude Joachim Lefèvre, whose French racing operations were based at Chamant, L'Oise, where he built a model stud, and after 1870 at Dangu in Normandy. Lefèvre built Bellevue in 1872 in "a picturesque Italian style" and in 1873 had set a record as a racehorse owner by winning 110 races in a season. The Duchess renamed it "Sefton Lodge" after Stirling-Crawfurd's 1878 Derby winner "Sefton". backing onto the Bury Side training grounds, which in about 1883 was enlarged in the same style by Stirling-Crawfurd and his wife. Following the death of her second husband in 1883, for a while she took personal management of his racehorses. She then hired a succession of managers, including Captain James Octavius Machell of Bedford Lodge Stables, Newmarket, and Sir John Willoughby, 5th Baronet, but having parted company with both she again took on personal management Lastly her horses were managed by her son the 5th Duke of Montrose. At left "an oil painting of the Last Supper in a fine late seventeenth century frame"

Her second husband Stirling-Crawfurd died in 1883 at his house in Cannes, South of France, 160 metres north-west of the house. next to his burial place, dedicated to Saint Agnes (the Duchess's second Christian name) and with a capacity for about 100 worshippers. St Agnes remained as an independent parish until 1966 when at last, after much resistance, it was amalgamated with St Mary's. The listing text states the interior walling of fair-face red brick with limestone dressings. A dado of majolica tiling throughout the nave and chapel. The entire wall face of the sanctuary is richly decorated, with several elements in a variety of materials: a marble reredos by Joseph Boehm in the Renaissance manner, depicting the assumption of Saint Agnes surrounded by cherubs in clouds; about its arched head, a triple arcade of limestone around and within which are figures of saints in richly-coloured Salviati mosaic. Practically all windows have stained glass figures of saints by Clayton and Bell. "The Duchess of Montrose got up from her pew and walked out of the church. Later she sent for the vicar and asked him how he dared pray for fine weather in her church when he knew perfectly well it would ruin the prospects of her horse. The Duchess is reputed to have said: "I shall not allow you to preach in my church again".

Character "Newmarket 1885", caricature by Liborio Prosperi published in Vanity Fair 1885. Persons portrayed include the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), the jockey Fred Archer, and at right the Duchess of Montrose Contemporary anecdotes of the Duchess include: "The Duchess was a very plain-spoken woman, and could swear roundly at a peccant jockey when she deemed that his unskillful riding demanded such verbal correction. She was cordially disliked by nine-tenths of the knights of the pigskin, and although she always liberally rewarded those Jockeys who rode her horses to victory, more than one rider 'begged to be excused' when invited to don the Manton colors". formerly the property of her first husband the Duke of Montrose, and was buried next to her second husband in the churchyard of St Agnes's Church in Newmarket, built by her as his monument. Her possessions were removed from Belgrave Square and Sefton Lodge and sold at auction by Christie's, including her collections of "books and manuscripts, pictures (including engravings after the works of Landseer), silver & silver-gilt plate, miniatures, gold boxes, etuis, fans, other objects of vertu, the casket of jewels, porcelain, old French and other decorative objects and furniture".