Ranfurly, Hermione ___ 1913-2001 ___ British ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Hermione was brought up on her grandfather's estate in Baglan, Wales, by apparently dysfunctional parents: her father was a gambler and her mother a manic depressive. They separated when Hermione was still a teenager. Her elder brother, whom she adored, was killed in an air crash. After studying secretarial skills, she went to Australia in 1937 and became the personal assistant to the Governor of New South Wales. There she met Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly, who was an assistant to Lord Gowrie, the Governor-General. They met again in Britain and were married in 1939. When her husband was called up, Hermione broke army rules by travelling out to Egypt to be with him; although, once there, she found if difficult to find work. Whitaker, who is named in the title of her published diaries, was her husband's butler. Hermione was expelled from the country once, but returned, nevertheless, only to suffer when her husband went missing. After three years in an Italian prison, Ranfurly eventually escaped. After the war, he worked in insurance. In 1953, they went to the Bahamas where Ranfurly served as Governor. Horrified by the lack of education resources on the island, Hermione asked friends to send unwanted books. Thus, she was able to launch the Ranfurly Library Service in Nassau. On returning to London in the late 1950s, she expanded into the organisation into Book Aid International. By 1994, it had sent an estimated 15 million books to over 70 countries. She was awarded an OBE in 1970.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Reinforcements received

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1913-1945 ___ domestic society travel family people Egypt

WEB TEXT LINKS
one extract
a lot about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-45
The Ugly One, The Childhood Memoirs, 1913-39
 

July 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.