Dame Eva Anstruther DBE (1869–1935) was an English writer and poet.

She was born as Eva Isabella Henrietta Hanbury-Tracy, the eldest child of the 4th Lord Sudeley

Baron Sudeley

Baron Sudeley is a title that has been created thrice in British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1299 when John de Sudeley was summoned to Parliament as Lord Sudeley. On the death of the...

. She grew up in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 at Toddington Manor

Toddington Manor

Toddington Manor is a 19th century country house in the English county of Gloucestershire, near the village of Toddington. It is in the gothic style and was designed by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley for himself and built between 1819 and 1840...

, near Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury is a town in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon, and also minor tributaries the Swilgate and Carrant Brook...

. Her two immediate siblings were boys and she grew up a somewhat lonely child, resorting to creative writing from a young age. She cultivated a wide circle of similar-minded friends - mainly school peers - and began writing seriously at the age of fourteen. In adult life, she had some success with poems, newspaper columns, short stories, certainly one play and a couple of novels but never obtained actual public major success. She had a special "den" in her home where she would sit and read or write. Sometimes in London she would go to Clifford's Inn

Clifford's Inn

Clifford's Inn was an Inn of Chancery which is located between Fetter Lane and Clifford's Inn Passage, leading off Fleet Street, EC4.Founded in 1344 and dissolved in 1903, most of the original structure was demolished in 1934...

, where she had a small personal office.

A play was written by Eva Anstruther (Bon Secours in 1903). It is thought that she wrote another play, Old Clothes, which is mentioned in a collectors' item manuscript - a letter written in March 1904 by Thomas Anstey Guthrie

Thomas Anstey Guthrie

Thomas Anstey Guthrie , was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F. Anstey....

 (1856–1934), who is also known as F. Anstey.

Personal life

She married Henry Torrens Anstruther in 1889, however his political career did not go well and he never became a cabinet minister. They separated in 1912 and divorced in 1915. They had two children. During the First World War she was appointed by Sir Edward Ward as Director of the Camps Library and was responsible for stocking the libraries for troops on active duty in France. Her title was Honorary Director of the Camps Library, for which service she was later made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire - on Ward's recommendation.

Clara Taylor

Clara Taylor was Dame Eva's maid between 1907 and 1914 but retained an association with the family long after that. In 1948, she was invited to write her reminiscences of those days in service. Clara Taylor writes candidly and clearly about the kind of life she led and about the relationships between Eva and her two children and between Dame Eva and her husband. She was part of the move to Pan's Garden which was a house built by Eva Anstruther in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 from circa

Circa

Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...

 1912 onwards. Taylor helped decorate the dining room walls. Taylor was later to work alongside Eva in London during the First World War.

Death

After Dame Eva's death in 1935, some 37 books on black magic and 66 books on cookery, although she was never known to cook, were found among her possessions. Also found was a photograph of a personal enemy - her son's mother-in-law by his first marriage - with pins stuck in it.