Olive, Lady Baillie was an Anglo-American heiress, landowner and hostess. She is best known as the owner of Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle, southeast of Maidstone, Kent, England, dates back to 1119, though a Saxon fort stood on the same site from the 9th century. The castle is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds....

, near Maidstone

Maidstone

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. On her death the castle was bequeathed to a charitable trust

Charitable trust

A charitable trust is an irrevocable trust established for charitable purposes, and is a more specific term than "charitable organization".-United States:...

 to enable it to be open to the public.

Personal life

Olive Cecilia Paget was born in the USA in 1899, the elder daughter of the Englishman Almeric Paget

Almeric Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough

Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough GBE was born into a noble family, but left school with only £5 to his name...

, who later became the 1st Baron Queenborough, and his American wife Pauline Payne Whitney

Pauline Payne Whitney

Pauline Payne Whitney , was an American heiress and a member of the prominent Whitney family.She was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of William C. Whitney and Flora Whitney...

, the daughter and heiress of William C. Whitney. In 1905 her sister, Dorothy Wyndham Paget

Dorothy Paget

Dorothy Wyndham Paget was a British racehorse owner.She was the daughter of Lord Queenborough and Pauline Payne Whitney of the United States Whitney family. She was a cousin of Jock Whitney, owner of the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Easter Hero and latterly American Ambassador in London. She...

 was born. When their mother died in 1916, each daughter inherited a considerable fortune. Olive was educated in France and in 1918 she served briefly as a wartime nurse. In 1919 she married the Hon. Charles John Frederick Winn, son of Baron St Oswald

Baron St Oswald

Baron St Oswald, of Nostell in the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the industrialist and Conservative politician Rowland Winn, a former Member of Parliament for North Lincolnshire. His son, the second Baron, represented Pontefract in the...

 of Nostell Priory

Nostell Priory

Nostell Priory is a Palladian house located in Nostell, near Crofton close to Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, approached by the Doncaster road from Wakefield...

 in 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...

, England. They had two daughters; Pauline was born in 1920 and Susan in 1923. The marriage ended in divorce in 1925.

Later that same year she married Arthur Wilson Filmer. The Wilson Filmers bought Leeds Castle in 1926–27 but were divorced in 1931. Olive retained possession of the castle. In November 1931 she married Sir Adrian William Maxwell Baillie, 6th Baronet, thus gaining the title of Lady Baillie. They had one son, Gawaine

Sir Gawaine Baillie, 7th Baronet

Sir Gawaine Baillie, 7th Bt was an amateur motor racing driver, engineer, industrialist, stamp collector, and the owner of the ancient estate surrounding Leeds Castle, the ancient fortress in Kent...

, who was born in 1934. Sir Adrian and Lady Baillie divorced in 1944; he died in 1947. Lady Baillie died in London on 9 September 1974, aged 75. Her estate

Estate (law)

An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...

 amounted to about £4.08 million.

Lady Baillie at Leeds Castle

When the Wilson Filmers bought Leeds Castle it was in a poor condition, having not been lived in since 1924, and parts of the grounds were overgrown. For the remainder of her life, the future Lady Baillie spent a large portion of her inherited fortune on the restoration of the castle and its associated buildings, and on the park and estate

Estate (house)

An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...

. She initially employed Owen Little, a Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 architect, to carry out work on the entrance lodges and the stable yard. Much of the internal restoration of the castle at that time was designed by the French designer Armand-Albert Rateau. The work was carried out by craftsmen from France and Italy, as well as from Britain. Later, between 1936 and 1967, Lady Baillie worked with the French designer Stéphane Boudin

Stéphane Boudin

Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...

 in planning further restorations and improvements to the castle.

Lady Baillie became renowned as a hostess. The Baillies lived during the week in London and held house parties at Leeds Castle at the weekends. Frequent visitors to the castle were political friends of Sir Adrian, David Margesson

David Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson

Henry David Reginald Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson PC was a British Conservative politician most popularly remembered for his tenure as Government Chief Whip in the 1930s. His reputation was of a stern disciplinarian who was one of the harshest and most effective whips...

 and Geoffrey Lloyd who were to become life-long friends of Lady Baillie. During the 1930s members of the royalty, including the Prince of Wales

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...

 with Mrs Simpson, the Duke of York

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

, Princess Marina, Queen Maria of Romania

Maria of Romania

Maria of Yugoslavia was the Queen consort of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. She was originally a princess of Romania.-Early life:She was born in Gotha, Thuringia, in Germany, during the reigns of her maternal grandfather Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and her grand-uncle King Carol I of...

, Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...

 and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...

 were visitors. Other prominent visitors included Sir Alfred Beit

Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd Baronet

Sir Alfred Lane Beit, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative Party politician, art collector and philanthropist and honorary Irish citizen.-Family background:...

, many MPs

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, including Anthony Eden

Anthony Eden

Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...

, and Germany's ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Britain, Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...

. Lady Baillie was a lover of the cinema and her guest list during that decade included the film stars Douglas Fairbanks senior

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

 and junior

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...

, Fredric March

Fredric March

Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...

, Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

, Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn

Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...

, Lili Damita

Lili Damita

Lili Damita was a French actress who appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937.-Early life and education:...

, Robert Taylor

Robert Taylor (actor)

Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

, James Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

 and Gertrude Lawrence

Gertrude Lawrence

Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...

. Other guests were Margaret, Duchess of Argyll

Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll

Margaret, sometime Duchess of Argyll , was a notorious British Socialite, best remembered for her 1963 divorce case against her second husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll, which featured salacious photographs and scandalous stories.-Birth and youth:Margaret was the only child of Helen Mann Hannay and...

, Barbara Hutton

Barbara Hutton

Barbara Woolworth Hutton was an American socialite dubbed by the media as the "Poor Little Rich Girl" because of her troubled life...

, the author Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...

, and the singer Richard Tauber

Richard Tauber

Richard Tauber was an Austrian tenor acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Some critics commented that "his heart felt every word he sang".-Early life:...

.

During the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Leeds Castle was used as a hospital. After the war, hospitality for prominent guests resumed, but on a smaller scale than in the 1930s. David Margesson and Geoffrey Lloyd continued to visit frequently. Members of the royal family continued to be invited, including Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...

 and Princess Marina. Another frequent visitor was John Hay Whitney

John Hay Whitney

John Hay Whitney , colloquially known as "Jock" Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family.-Family:...

, the American ambassador to Britain. From the 1950s Lady Baillie's health started to deteriorate. She had always been a cigarette smoker and by the 1970s had become dependent on oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

 and needed the support of a resident nurse. She had given 3400 acres (13.8 km²) of the castle's estate to her son Gawaine in 1966, but wanted the castle itself to be available after her death to the public for the arts and for conferences. Not wanting it to be taken over by 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...

, she made arrangements for it to be administered by a charitable trust

Charitable trust

A charitable trust is an irrevocable trust established for charitable purposes, and is a more specific term than "charitable organization".-United States:...

, which is now the Leeds Castle Foundation.

Sources