Great Lady

In the Small Library of Unlawater House, Newnham-on-Severn, sat one of the grandest old ladies in England last week, Walburga Ehrengarde Helena Lady Paget, 90, the last of Queen Victoria's intimate friends. Born in Berlin, daughter of Charles Frederic Anthony, Count de Hohenthal, she married Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget, British Minister to Copenhagen in 1860. In 1860 she helped Queen Victoria arrange the marriage of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. In 1928 she published her memoirs, The Linings of Life.

Nodding over her newspaper in the Small Library of Unlawater House, Lady Paget lapsed gently into sleep. The newspaper slipped from her fingers, lodged against the blazing coal grate. With a start she woke to find both the newspaper and her skirts aflame. Unable to rise un assisted, she rang for her butler.

Swift to respond as usual, the butler arrived in time to tear the skirts off Walburga Lady Paget before her upper clothing caught fire. When he finished stamping out the flames he found that she had swooned. She was removed to Wooton Hospital. There, a few hours later, she died.