1946

UNTRACED

Lady Dorothie Moore, née Lady Dorothie Feilding 1917

Seated half-length slightly to the left, full face looking to the viewer, wearing a brown coat with a fur collar and decorations pinned on the left shoulder, both hands resting on her lap, holding a khaki service cap

Oil on canvas, 83.82 x 60.96 cm (33 x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1917 June 6

Laib L8516(529) / C6(29) Countess Denbigh [sic]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 10: Dorothie Feilding June 21st/17

Lady Dorothie Moore and her husband, Captain Charles Moore [6362], were both painted in uniform in 1917 as a wedding present from the sitter’s father the Earl of Denbigh. De László noted in his diary that she was the first female sitter he painted in uniform. The portrait is dated 6 June; however, as she signed the Sitters’ Book 21 June, it is possible that the artist has inscribed it mistakenly, something he did quite often. De László also painted a study portrait of the sitter which is dated 28 July 1917 [6358].

Lady Dorothie Mary Evelyn Feilding was born 6 October 1889 in Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire, the second daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh (1859–1939) and his wife Cecilia Mary Clifford (1860-1919). She was incorrectly registered at birth as Dorothy.

Lady Dorothie served with great distinction in the First World War, joining the Munro British Red Cross Motor Ambulance Corps at the start of the war in August 1914. Her work involved bringing the wounded men of the Allied armies from the front line to the casualty hospitals. Her bravery was acknowledged early on. Admiral Ronarc'h, head of the French brigade of Fusiliers Marins in Flanders, thanked her in a special order for 31 December for her work in removing wounded men in the neighbourhood of Ghent and Dixmude: “showing, almost every day, the finest example of devotion and of disregard for danger.” He referred to her as ‘la gracieuse ambulancière’ who would long be remembered by his men for so often risking her life to come to their aid. In 1915 she was awarded the Croix de Guerre (bronze star) in acknowledgement of her service.^[1] 

On 6 September 1916 Lady Dorothie became the first Englishwoman to be awarded the Military Medal, which she was presented by King George V at Windsor Castle. Shortly after, she was made a knight of the Belgian order of Leopold II by King Albert I of Belgium [7864]. Commander Henry Crosby Halahan, the officer commanding the Royal Naval Siege Guns, wrote the following letter of recommendation to Prince Alexander of Teck, head of the British Military Mission in Belgium:

“I venture to submit that Lady Dorothie Feilding should in like manner be rewarded. The circumstances are peculiar in that, this being an isolated Unit, no Medical organization existed for clearing casualties other than this voluntary one and owing to indifferent means of communication etc, it was necessary for the Ambulance to be in close touch with the guns when in action. [She] was thus frequently exposed to risks which probably no other woman has undergone. She has always displayed a devotion to duty and contempt of danger which has been a source of admiration to all. I speak only of her work with the Naval Siege Guns, but your Serene Highness is also aware of her devoted services to the Belgian Army and to the French - notably to the Brigade des Marins.”^[2] 

Lady Dorothie was a prolific letter writer during the war and some 250 examples survive in the Warwickshire archives. She was greatly affected by her work at the front and wrote: “It just despairs one and makes one rage when you see this endless stream of shattered humanity, and see the ghastly work a shell can make of their poor bodies...I think that there is an endless blank that begins after death and that all things finish there. I try to believe that there is a future, but I can't any more.”^[3]

She left the front in early June 1917 and this portrait must have been painted almost immediately upon her return to London. On 5 July she married Captain Charles Moore (1880-1965) at Newnham Paddox. He was serving in the Irish Guards and after the war they moved to his estate, Mooresfort House in Tipperary, Ireland. There were five children of the marriage. Lady Dorothie was an avid follower of the Scarteen Hunt and was an active member of the British Legion, President of the Tipperary Jubilee Nursing Association and the local Agricultural Show Society.

She died suddenly of heart failure 24 October 1935 at the age of 46. She was returned to her home in Warwickshire and buried on 27 October in the family plot at the Monks Kirby Roman Catholic cemetery.

LITERATURE:

•Roy, Terry, ‘Moore, Lady Dorothie Mary Evelyn (1889–1935)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition

•The National Archives: Feilding Family of Newnham Paddox: CR 2017/C329 - CR 2017/C1388

•DLA166-0066, letter from Lord Denbigh to de László, 25 May 1917

KF 2017