Edith and Sybil Montgomery
(1844-1926 and 1845-1935))
[1860]

Volume 1, page 116, sitting number 667. 

[The sitters are identified as ‘Misses Montgomery’ in the Silvy daybooks. A pencilled margin note adds ‘Now Marchioness of Queensberry,’ with an arrow pointing at Sibyl. Edith is on the right here, Sibyl on the left.]

Edith Montgomery was born at Eaton Place in London in 1844, the elder daughter of Alfred Montgomery, who in 1851 gave his profession as a ‘Commissioner of Inland Revenue.’ An artistic and cultured man, her f was a personal friend of the Prince of Wales  Edith was baptised at St Paul’s, Wilton Place, on 13 June 1844. Her mother was the Honourable Fanny Charlotte née Wyndham, daughter of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield of Leconfield.

On 3 August 1871 at Aswarby in Lincolnshire she became the second wife of widower the Right Honourable George Henry Finch, whose first wife had died in 1865. His maternal grandfather was the 6th Duke of Beaufort. A Conservative politician, in 1867 he had been elected the Member of Parliament for Rutland. He was to occupy the seat for more than 39 years, eventually becoming ‘the Father of the House.’ 

‘George Henry Finch, Esq. of Burley-on-the-Hill, MP for Rutlandshire, to Edith, eldest daughter of A. Montgomery, Esq., Commissioner of Inland Revenue, and granddaughter of the late Lord Leconfield’ (Belfast Newsletter, 11 August 1871).

Their marriage produced seven children.

In 1901 the family was living at The Hall, Burley, Rutland. The household included a governess and 21 servants. 

George Henry Finch died on 27 May 1907, leaving an estate valued at £28,273.

In 1911 Edith was a widow, aged 66, living with 11 servants at 61 Princes Gate, overlooking the south side of Hyde Park.

She died in Brighton on 23 December 1926 at 18 Marine Square. Her estate was valued at £7450.

[From an album compiled by Bertha Amelia Yorke, daughter of the Very Rev. and Hon. Grantham Munton Yorke.]