| Charles Henry Roberts 1865 |
LADY CECILIA ROBERTSTHE LIBERAL FAITHShe was Lady Cecilia Maud Howard second daughter of the ninth Earl of Carlisle and Rosalind, second daughter of the second Lord Stanley of Alderley. Born in 1868, she married Mr. Roberts in 1891. At the celebration of their golden wedding in 1941 many of the large number of bridesmaids who attended her as a bride 50 years before were among the guests. There are two daughters and a son of the marriage; the son is Mr. Wilfrid Roberts, Liberal M.P. for northern Cumberland since 1935. Lady Cecilia was an ardent supporter of the Liberal Party all her life and was formerly president of the Women's Liberal Federation. Her other great interest, was total abstinence and she had also been president of the British Women's Total Abstinence Union. In 1928 she presented that part of Lanercost Priory which was not in use as a church to the nation. It is an Augustinian foundation of the twelfth century and contains the tombs of many of Lady Cecilia's ancestors. A correspondent writes: -- Lady Cecilia inherited her mother's unbounded hospitality and her genius for organizing large-scale festivities. Her house at Boothby was apt to be filled to overflowing with children, grandchildren, nieces and their friends, expected or unexpected. Any philanthropic or progressive society which was in difficulties for a dance or an annual meeting had only to approach Lady Cecilia. If success seemed impossible she applied her motto, "If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly"; and the thing was almost invariably done well. While her own Liberal and temperance faith was firm, her abounding charity ignored differences and swept away dissensions. Once, when the miners on the estate, through perfectly satisfied with their own conditions, explained that they felt bound to strike in support of a strike in Newcastle, her only comment was that of course they must follow their consciences, but that if, through the strike, their wives and children were in any want, they might be sure that she and her husband would look after them. Few people can have been so universally loved among their neighbours. She inherited much of her father's artistic ability. |