Edith Balfour Lyttelton

Dame Edith Sophy Lyttelton (née Balfour; 4 April 1865 – 2 September 1948) was a British novelist, playwright, World War I-era activist and spiritualist.

Biography Lyttelton was born in Saint Petersburg, the eldest daughter of Archibald Balfour, a London businessman and merchant in the Russian Empire, and Sophia "Sophy" Weguelin, daughter of MP Thomas Matthias Weguelin. Edith was educated privately and moved in the aristocratic circle of friends known as "the Souls", which included A. J. Balfour, George Curzon, Margot Tennant (later Asquith), and Alfred Lyttelton, whom she married. Together they had two surviving children, including Oliver Lyttelton (later 1st Viscount Chandos).

Activism During their visit to South Africa in 1900, Lyttelton developed a high regard for Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, and helped establish the Victoria League in 1901 with Violet Markham and Violet Cecil to promote the imperial vision advocated by Milner. The league brought together high-ranking women from different sides of the political divide on the common ground of the empire. She served as its honorary secretary and also supported the Women's Tariff Reform Association. She served on the League's committee on opium smoking in 1928.

Spiritualism After the death of her husband in 1913, she became interested in spiritualism and was a member, and president from 1933 to 1934, of the council of the Society for Psychical Research. Spiritualism heavily influenced her works, The Faculty of Communion (1925), Our Superconscious Mind (1931), and Some Cases of Prediction (1937), as well as her biography of Florence Upton (1926).

She also translated Edmond Rostand's Les deux pierrots. She was encouraged by her close friendship with George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. After 1918 she also lobbied for the foundation of a national theatre in London and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre.

Honours In August 1917, Lyttelton was among the first group of people honoured following the creation of the Order of the British Empire by King George V, when she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order (DBE) for her work with refugees. She and was named Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1929 New Year Honours, for public services.

Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos (15 March 1893 – 21 January 1972) Mary Frances Lyttelton (1 July 1895 – 24 October 1982), married in 1928, to Sir George Craik, 2nd Baronet Anthony George Lyttelton (3 June 1900 – 17 December 1901)

Widowed in 1913, Edith Lyttelton died in September 1948 at her home in Westminster, age 83.