3537

Violet Bathurst, Lady Apsley, née Violet Meeking 1926

Standing three-quarter length, slightly to the right and looking to the left, wearing a grey riding habit with a white stock and holding a hunting whip in both hands with a pair of gloves in her right hand, a stormy sky and landscape behind

Oil on canvas, 128.3 x 86.4 cm (50 ½ x 34 in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1926   

Laib L14934 (410) / C1 (25)  

NPG Album 1925-27 p. 16

Sitters’ Book II, f. 44: Viola Apsley May 25th 1925.

Private Collection

This portrait was commissioned by Herbert Johnson, step-father of the sitter, as one of a pair of portraits of his step-daughters, Lady Apsley and Lady Somers [7187] for his home, Marsh Court in Hampshire. The sisters were accomplished riders on the hunt field and may have asked to be depicted in their riding habits. The sitter’s mother-in-law Lady Bathurst [3544] had insisted de László paint the sitter in a green evening dress [3534] in an earlier portrait: “a habit is such an ugly thing stiff and black and unwomanly.”^[1] De László had already painted two portraits of ladies in their riding habits by this date: Baroness van Tuyll^[2] [7542], and the Honourable Mrs Edward Johnson-Ferguson [2287].^[3] Herbert Johnson paid £1,680 for both portraits. Lady Bathurst was completely won over and wrote to Mrs de László: “Do tell Mr. de László that I have seen the two pictures of my daughter-in-law & Finola Somers, in grey habits, hanging at Marsh Court & I like them immensely.”^[4]

Violet ‘Viola’ Meeking was born on 29 April 1895, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Bertram Charles Meeking and his wife Violet Fletcher of Richings Park, Buckinghamshire.  Her father served with the 10th Hussars and died during the South African campaign, before her fifth birthday. In 1912, her mother married Herbert Johnson MBE, of Marsh Court, Hampshire, who took great care of his two step-daughters over the years. During the First World War, he converted Marsh Court into a Military Hospital, where Violet served with a Voluntary Aid Detachment. On 27 February 1924 she married Allen Algernon Bathurst, Lord Apsley, eldest son of the 7th Earl Bathurst and the Hon. Lilias Borthwick; together they had two sons; Henry (born 1927) and George (born 1929). The family lived at Petty France, Badminton, in Gloucestershire.

Lady Apsley was very active politically and held a number of offices: in the year of her marriage she became President of Southampton Women’s Conservative Association, a post that she held until 1929. In 1930, the sitter received her pilot’s licence, but it seems she was already flying prior to that. During the 1930-1931 hunting season, Lady Apsley broke her back in a hunting accident and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Doctors made her lie down for years in the hope that her back would heal and her sister was a great support at this time. Her condition did not affect her determination and strength of character. On the eve of the Second World War, she was County Commandant for the Auxiliary Territorial Service for Gloucestershire from 1938 until 1939, and, during the War, Group Commander A.T.S. (rank of Chief-Commandant) from 1939 until 1940. From 1940 until 1943, she was Senior A.T.S. Welfare Officer for Gloucestershire and from 1941 until 1944, Hon. Secretary A.T.S. Benevolent Fund. Lord Apsley was killed on active service in Malta in 1942, and in 1943, their elder son Henry succeeded him as the 8th Earl Bathurst.

Lady Apsley succeeded as MP (Conservative) for Bristol Central in a 1943 by-election, a seat she held until 1945. She was President of Links of Empire from 1926 until 1938, National Chairman of the Women’s Section of the British Legion from 1942 to 1948, President of the Bristol Women's Unionist Association, and Member of the Films Council (Board of Trade) from 1943 until 1946. After losing the Bristol seat in 1945 in the general election, she contested Bristol North-East, but without success.

Though her accident prevented her from riding again she published several books on the subject: To Whom the Goddess (1932; co-author with Lady Diana Shedden), Bridleways through History (1936), and The Fox-Hunter’s Bedside Book (1949). She was awarded a CBE in 1952.

Lady Apsley died 19 January 1966.

PROVENANCE:        

Herbert Johnson, the sitter’s step-father

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1927, no. 32

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur. 6-22 January 2004, no. 104

•Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, 2024, no. 11

LITERATURE:          

•DLA 1916 parcel, Moderne Welt, no. 16, ill.

•The Sketch, 15 June 1927, ill.

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2004, p. 169, ill.

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 64, ill. p. 65

•DLA055-0075, letter from Lady Bathurst to de László, 6 March 1924

•DLA055-0088, letter from Lady Bathurst to Mrs. de László, 3 January 1927

•László, Philip de, June-November 1935 diary, private collection, 19 June 1935 entry, pp. 10-11

CC 2008

KF 2020