Early life

Pretty was born at Elland

Elland

Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England, south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The area of Elland was called Elant in the Domesday Book...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 on 1 August 1883, the younger of two daughters of Robert and Elizabeth Dempster. The Dempsters were industrialists who amassed considerable wealth from the manufacture of equipment related to the gas industry. Their fortune made possible many foreign tours, including one 'round the world', and Robert Dempster took a lease on the huge country house

English country house

The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

 of Vale Royal Abbey

Vale Royal Abbey

Vale Royal Abbey is a medieval abbey, and later country house, located in Whitegate, between Northwich and Winsford in Cheshire, England.The abbey was founded in 1270 by Edward I for monks of the austere Cistercian order...

, near Whitegate, Cheshire, the family seat of Lord Delamere

Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere

Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere , styled The Honourable from 1821 until 1855, was a British peer and politician.-Personal:...

.

Edith was educated at Roedean School

Roedean School

-Roedeanians in fiction:* Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward * Dawn Drummond-Clayton * Emily James...

, finishing her education with a six-month spell in Paris. After school, she became involved in good works, including the Red Cross, with whom she served during the First World War in the United Kingdom and France.

In 1926, Edith married her long term suitor, Frank Pretty, an Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

 man who had been a Major in the Territorial Army's Suffolk Regiment

Suffolk Regiment

The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment as the 1st East Anglian Regiment in 1959...

 during the First World War and who continued to serve the Suffolk Regiment after the war, also working in the family business of clothing manufacture. After their marriage, the Prettys looked for a home near Ipswich. Edith gave up the lease on Vale Royal and bought Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo, near to Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th and early 7th century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British...

 House near Woodbridge, Suffolk

Woodbridge, Suffolk

Woodbridge is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. It is in the East of England, not far from the coast. It lies along the River Deben, with a population of about 7,480. The town is served by Woodbridge railway station on the Ipswich-Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. Woodbridge is twinned with...

.
Also in 1926 she donated the Dempster Challenge Cup to Winsford

Winsford

Winsford is a town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies on the River Weaver south of Northwich and west of Middlewich, and grew around the salt mining industry after the river was canalised in the...

 UDC, Cheshire, which has been awarded annually to a plot-holder on the town's allotments.

In 1930, at the age of forty-seven, Edith gave birth to a son, Robert Dempster Pretty. The marriage was happy, ending in 1934 with the death of Frank Pretty.

Archaeology

In 1938, Pretty enlisted the help of a Suffolk archaeologist, Basil Brown

Basil Brown

Basil John Wait Brown was a farmer, archaeologist, amateur astronomer and author who most famously discovered the buried ship at Sutton Hoo and excavated its sandy outline on the eve of war in 1939....

, to dig into ancient mounds on her land. Some promising finds were made, and Brown returned in the summer of 1939 to make further excavations. He soon unearthed the remains of an enormous burial, later identified as a 7th century Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 ship and probably the last resting-place of King Rædwald of East Anglia.

In September 1939, a treasure trove

Treasure trove

A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable...

 inquest determined that the fabulous grave goods unearthed from the ship were Pretty's property to do with as she chose. Within days, she had made the greatest donation to the nation made in a donor's lifetime, giving the treasure to the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. In recognition of this, prime minister Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 later offered Pretty the honour of an OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, but she declined.

Edith Pretty died in 1942. Sutton Hoo House and the burial site are now in the care of The National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

.

Further reading

• C J Durrant & M Skelcher, Edith Pretty, from Socialite to Sutton Hoo, a biography (2006)
• C J Durrant Basil Brown, Astronomer, Archaeologist, Enigma, a biography (2005)