2 OF 3 
Gwendolen Jane (née Griffith), Lady Brade
2 of 3 portraits of Gwendolen Jane (née Griffith), Lady Brade
Gwendolen Jane (née Griffith), Lady Brade
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 21 February 1918
Given by Bassano & Vandyk Studios, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x158841
Sitterback to top
- Gwendolen Jane (née Griffith), Lady Brade (died circa 1952), Wife of Sir Reginald Brade; daughter of Joshua Griffith. Sitter in 3 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Bassano Ltd (active 1901-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 42746 portraits.
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, London (photographer's studio, 25 Old Bond Street , London)
Events of 1918back to top
Current affairs
Despite the suspension of the Suffrage movement during the war, the Government finally agrees to grant women the right to vote as recognition of their vital role in the war effort. However, The Representation of the People Act only extended the franchise to female householders and university graduates over 30. Equal rights to men were not granted until 1928.Art and science
War Poet, Wilfred Owen, is killed in action just a week before the end of the war. His poems, including Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, tell of the horror of war in the trenches and the tragic loss of a generation of young men who enthusiastically signed up to fight in a war that became seen as futile rather than glorious.International
British representative, Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, signs the Armistice calling a ceasefire on the 11th November 1918 and ending the war. Germany and Austria loose their empires and become republics. Around the same time a global flu pandemic brakes out - known in England as Spanish Flu - killing 50-100 million people within a year compared to 15 million fatalities from the four years of war.Comments back to top
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ROGER TOFT
05 January 2017, 21:10
Gwendolen Brade was my great-aunt; She belonged to a typically large Victorian family originating in Swansea. The father, Joshua Griffith owned coal mines, I believe, and was wealthy enough to bring up his daughters as ladies. However, I was told his cashier absconded to Australia with tens of thousands of pounds; and the Griffith family concern went bankrupt.
I saw just four of the daughters. Firstly Margaret Griffith, who married my paternal grandfather Thomas Toft. Secondly Anne Griffith, who married a Roy Vivian and become the mother of the great music-hall and pantomime star of the 1920s, Mona Vivian. Thirdly the sitter herself, whom I met just once; Fourthly her sister Edith Griffith, who never married..
However my father told me a few thing about Gwendolen Griffith. When her family lost its money, she took to nursing. One of her patients was Reginald Herbert Brade who became Secretary of State for War during the 1914-18 conflict. They fell in love and married. Brade was a great friend of Beaverbrook, therefore must have known Churchill. He became a knight of the Bath ( K.G.C.B. ), and he and Gwendolen lived in great style in a house along Park Lane which is still there.
Gwendolen presented debutantes at court as she was well acquainted with George V and Queen Mary, I suppose once she and ''Uncle Reggie'', as the family knew him, dropped out of the limelight . He was busy writing his memoirs ( to make money, I gather ) when he died in 1936. The funeral servce being at St. Margarets
Westminster.
He and Gwendolen had no children and adopted a girl. She married someone who claimed, with what justification I do nto know, to be a Russian prince. They eloped and Gwendolen and Reginald seem to have cut off contact. After her husband's death, Gwendolen lived in straightened circumstances; She a lovely house on the south side of London, where I saw her just once. She was in her eighties and lived with a female companion and a daily bottle of whisky. When she could no longer afford even that, she applied to her sister Edith, who then descended on her nephew, my father and asked him to keep Gwendolen supplied ! The latter must have died about 1952 to 1953.
After they left the limelight