Gabriela Cunninghame Graham

Gabriela Cunninghame Graham (also known as Gabrielle Marie de la Balmondière, née Caroline Horsfall; 22 January 1858 – 8 September 1906) was an English writer, translator, lecturer, and socialist. She lived most of her life under the guise of being Chilean-born of Franco-Hispanic descent , a fabrication which was only exposed in 1986, long after her death.

Life Gabriela Cunninghame Graham was born Caroline (or Carrie) Stansfield Horsfall in Masham, North Yorkshire, England, in January 1858, In 1875, she ran away again to London to pursue a theatrical career. Though there is much speculation, nothing is known of about how she spent the next three years . However, it is probably during this time that she converted to Roman Catholicism.

According to Tschiffely, she met the Scottish writer and politician R. B. Cunninghame Graham in Paris, France after Graham had trouble controlling his horse. but all that is historically verifiable is that they married on 24 October 1878 at the Strand register office in London, Carrie using the name Gabrielle Marie de la Balmondière, and also giving a false age

A 2004 biography of R. B. Cunninghame Graham by his great-niece, Jean Cunninghame Graham, described the couple meeting in a park in Paris, and Gabriela revealing her true name and origins within the course of their first conversation. . Nonetheless, her identity as Gabrielle Marie de la Balmondière was maintained throughout her life, and even long after her death. . On inheriting Gartmore, they strove to pay off inherited debts, first by selling Ardoch in the 1880s, then by selling the Gartmore feus and ultimately by selling Gartmore House, the family seat, in 1901, to Sir Charles Cayzer, 1st Baronet. This finally ensured their financial security. . Gabriela maintained contact with her mother and some of her sisters , but asked that her new identity be respected and not revealed.

Gabriela Cunninghame Graham wrote essays, poetic translations, and a substantial biography of Teresa of Avila, Santa Teresa: Her Life and Times, published in 1894. .

Like her husband, Gabriela was an active socialist, and despite professing an aversion to politics, addressed meetings in England and Europe on subjects including the need for an eight-hour working day, and the ideals of socialism. . This combined with her chain-smoking, a habit she had acquired in Texas, led to a serious decline in her health in her later years. She suffered frequent bouts of bronchitis and pleurisy, during which she would cough up blood , and even on one occasion pneumonia . Despite all this, she continued to smoke heavily and Jean Cunninghame Graham suggests that nicotine poisoning and perhaps cancer were involved in her decline .

Death and burial

Gabriela Cunninghame Graham died from dysentery on her way home from Spain on 8 September 1906 in Hendaye, France at the Port of Menteith and thence she was taken by boat to be laid to rest in the chancel of the ruined church of Inchmahome Priory, Scotland. Her gravestone only bears the initials GCCG (Gabriela Chideock Cunninghame Graham), Chid(eock) being her husband's pet name for her. However, there is also a bronze memorial on the wall above it (see image), which includes a quotation from the play Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (La Celestina) by Fernando de Rojas: "Los muertos abren los ojos a los que viven" (the dead open the eyes of those who live). After her death, Cunninghame Graham collected his wife's poetry in a volume titled Rhymes from a World Unknown. He was later buried beside her.