Violet, Lady Greville

Beatrice Violet Greville, Baroness Greville (born Lady Beatrice Violet Graham; 13 February 1842 – 29 February 1932) was a British aristocrat, novelist and playwright.

Life Greville was born at the now demolished Sulby Hall at Sulby, Northamptonshire. Her parents were the politician James Graham, 4th Duke of Montrose and the racehorse owner, former Hon. Caroline Agnes Horsley-Beresford (third daughter of John Horsley-Beresford, 2nd Baron Decies). She is said to have had a perfect childhood at Buchanan Castle, the house her father had built.

She disappointed her father when she married and she had to leave the family home. Her husband's ancestral home did not compare to her own but he became a member of parliament and in 1883 he became the second Baron Greville and she became Lady Greville. She was able to enjoy London society where she met Oscar Wilde, Adelina Patti and the painter James Whistler.

In 1927 she published her memoirs under the title of Vignettes of Memory.

Greville died at the Imperial Hotel in Bournemouth in 1932.

Personal life On 16 December 1863, she married the politician Algernon Greville, 2nd Baron Greville. Her first four children were:

Hon. Ronald Henry Fulke Greville (1864–1908), who married Margaret Helen Anderson, only daughter and heiress of William McEwan MP. Charles Beresford Fulke Greville, 3rd Baron Greville (1871–1952), who married American heiress Olive Grace Kerr. Hon. Camilla Dagmar Violet Greville (1866–1938), who married Hon. Alistair George Hay, son of the Earl of Kinnoull, on 21 January 1890. They divorced in 1908.

Novels Zoe: A Girl of Genius, 1881 Keith's Wife: A Novel, 1883. Creatures of Clay: A Novel, 1885. The Secret of Barravoe: A Tale, 1885. That Hated Saxon, 1893. The Home for Failures, 1896