Lady Helen Stewart
(1834-1903)
1867

[A pencilled inscription verso identifies the sitter as ‘Lady Helen Stewart.’ The likeliest match for a fuller identification is the eldest daughter of Randolph Stewart, 9th Earl of Galloway.]

Born in 1834, Lady Helen Blanche Stewart was the daughter of Randolph Stewart, from 1834 the 9th Earl of Galloway. Her mother was Lady Harriet Blanche Somerset, daughter of the 6th Duke of Beaufort. 

On 21 April 1896 she married Walter Clifford Mellor. 

‘Today in a little side chapel of the Catholic Church in Spanish Place, Lady Helen Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Galloway, was married to Mr Walter Clifford Mellor. The marriage was quite private. The bride (writes a lady correspondent) wore a grey moiré dress, grey butterfly bonnet, and was heavily veiled. She carried a bouquet of pink carnations, and wore an amethyst necklace’ (Glasgow Herald, 21 April 1896). 

‘The marriage on Tuesday of Lady Helen Stewart, sister of the Earl of Galloway, to Mr Clifford Mellor, unites two historically interesting families. The Earls of Galloway claim descent from the Lord High Steward of Scotland, whose son married Marjorie, daughter of Robert Bruce, and who thus became the ancestor of the Royal House of Stuart. Mr Mellor is a Count of the Holy Roman Empire by descent’ (Northern Weekly Gazette, 25 April 1896). 

Lady Helen Blanche Clifford Mellor died on 5 January 1903 at 20 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.