You probably know that I am fascinated by the writer and poet John Masefield, and have posted fairly frequently about him. I received today through the post a biography of him by Constance Babington Smith.
What an interesting woman she was! Her mother was a great-granddaughter of the Earl of Elgin who stole the Greek marbles, and her father, Sir Henry was a very eminent man and was appointed Governor of the Bank of England. She had eight brothers and sisters, Michael, Henry, Bernard, Margaret, David, Lucy, Susan and Elizabeth; Michael was born in 1901, and twenty years later the youngest child Susan was born. Sadly Sir Henry died when Susan was only two.
Constance was born in 1912 and during the war worked on interpreting aerial reconnaissance photos for which she received an MBE; the war in Europe ended and she was seconded to the American forces to continue working on photographic interpretation, but for the war in the east. After the war she moved to Cambridge, and wrote a number of books, mostly biographies, of which ‘John Masefield: A Life’ was one. I’m sure I will mention this biography again, it looks interesting and has some wonderful photos.
Constance died at the age of eighty-eight after a most interesting life, and here is an obituary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1351907/Constance-Babington-Smith.html
Lois Elsden 