Catalogue description Diaries of Lady Helena Mary Molyneux, Countess of Sefton (1875 - 1947)

The diaries were kept from the few days before her marriage to the day before her death. Only the diary for 1918 is missing. Diary entries vary but are mostly fairly full. The first few diaries are illustrated with small water colour or pencil sketches. All the volumes include details of family and friends. There are many enclosures in the diaries, especially in the later years - lists, copied quotations, instructions for using things, newscuttings, addressed, train times, letters etc. For some entries, especially those of personal importance to the writer such as the death of her husband or the anniversary of his death, the diary entry has been drafted (or copied) onto a loose sheet of paper, besides being entered in the volume.

Helena Mary Bridgeman, born on 16th July 1875 was the third daughter of George Cecil Orlando Bridgeman, Viscount Newport, later 4th Earl of Bradford. On 8th January 1898 she married Osbert Cecil Molyneux (1871 - 1930), second son of William, 4th Earl of Sefton, then a captain in the 2nd Life Guards. The marriage took place in London, quietly, owing to the death six months earlier of the bridegroom's father and the serious illness of the bride's grandfather, the 3rd Earl of Bradford.

In April 1898 Osbert Molyneux resigned his commission (see 920 SEF/4/1, 19th April). In the early years of their marriage the couple (she was known to the family as "Nellie") lived at Dale Fords, Marton in Cheshire (see O.S. map 6" Cheshire sheet XL, N.E., 1911) near to Delamere Forest. On 2nd December 1901, Osbert Molyneux invalid older brother Charles, 5th Earl of Sefton (see 920 SEF/2 above) died and Osbert succeeded as 6th Earl of Sefton. The couple left Dale Fords - "... went over to Dale Ford ... to settle about the removal of the furniture ...", 6th June 1902, "... I went to Dale Ford for the day for the last time, it being now sold to Mr. Dewhurst ..." 29th July 1902 (see 920 SEF/4/5) (see also Kelly's Cheshire Directory, 1906, p. 639, under Whitegate, subheading Marton "Dale Fords is the seat of Harry Dewhurst esq., J.P.").

There were three children of the marriage, only the oldest of whom lived to come of age. Hugh was born on 22nd December 1898 and lived until April 1972 becoming the 7th Earl of Sefton on the death of his father. Cecil was born on 2nd December 1899. He became a midshipman in the Royal Navy and was killed at the battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916 when only 16 years of age. The only daughter Evelyn was born on 29th October 1902 and died at the age of fourteen, on 26th June 1917.

The new Countess of Sefton shared the Molyneux family's keen interest in sporting activities. She was "... one of the principal lady supporters of the sport of Coursing ..." and in 1921 was the ... first woman to win the Waterloo Cup ..." with her dog Shortcoming. She was also interested in shooting and big game hunting. A cutting (see 920 SEF/10/4, p. 45) headed "A Lady Lion Hunter" refers to the Countess of Sefton as "... the adventurous Society Sportswoman who ... recently shot her first lion in Abyssinia". A further cutting at p. 71 headed Women in the North-West notes "... Lady Sefton has had experience of big game hunting. In ... 1907 ... she ... accounted for a lion in Abyssinia and five years later, after being the guest of the Viceroy [of India] ... for the Delhi Durbar, the Earl and Countess went on a hunting trip to Hyderabad ..." She also became an enthusiastic traveller and sightseer (for her foreign hunting and travel diaries and albums, see 920 SEF/5 below).

Obituary notices of the Countess make many references to her work for charity and voluntary organisations and repeat phrases such as "... a lifetime of public work", "assiduous worker for many good causes in Liverpool", "indefatigable worker in the cause of charity". According to a cutting from the Evening Express, 28th August 1947, "... Always a supporter of good causes she intensified this work after the death of her husband ..." in 1930. She was especially associated with the Liverpool Needlework Guild and the Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen where she worked as a dinner time waitress throughout the Second World War. She was also involved with the Liverpool Cathedral Building Fund, the British Legion, the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, the Women's War Service Bureau and a number of boy's clubs. A list of her bequests to various organisations indicated her interests, see Liverpool Echo, 28th November 1948. Shortly before her death she had bought a house in Falkner Square "... with a view to converting it into a hostel for aged women ..."

In 1943 she had left Croxteth Hall to live at Bridge House, Mossley Hill Drive. She visited Croxteth Hall regularly and being a keen gardener spent much time in the gardens there. After gradually failing health she died in the gardens at Croxteth on 27th August 1947.

Sources: Burke's Peerage, under Bradford. Cuttings Book, 920 SEF/10/4 - many useful cuttings, almost all loose and undated and without any particular arrangement

Biographical newscuttings Sefton, Helena (Countess of)