Sibyl Colefax, Lady Colefax (1874 – 22 September 1950) was a notable English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 interior decorator and socialite

Socialite

A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....

 in the first half of the twentieth century.

She was born Sybil Halsey in Wimbledon

Wimbledon, London

Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...

 into a noted society family and lived in Cawnpore, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, until the age of 20 when she went on the Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

. In 1901, she married patent lawyer Sir Arthur Colefax

Arthur Colefax

Sir Henry "Arthur" Colefax, KC was a British patent lawyer and Conservative Party politician.Colefax was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, and was the son of J S Colefax, a woollen merchant...

, who was briefly the MP for Manchester South West

Manchester South West (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester South West was one of six single-member Parliamentary constituencies created in 1885 by the division of the existing three-member Parliamentary Borough of Manchester...

 in 1910. They set up home at Argyll House, King's Road, Chelsea

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

 and at Old Buckhurst in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. Widely admired for her taste after she had lost most of her fortune in the Wall Street Crash she began to decorate professionally, using her formidable address book for contacts. She was able to purchase the decorating division of the antique dealers Stair and Andrew of Bruton Street, Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

 and established Sibyl Colefax Ltd in partnership with Peggy Ward, the Countess Munster. On her 'retirement' (following a family tragedy) Peggy Ward advised her to take on John Fowler

John Beresford Fowler

John Beresford Fowler was an English interior decorator. He was educated at Felsted School.-References:*Stephen Long, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography...

 (1906-1977) as her partner, which she did in April 1938. The advent of war cut short this partnership. During the Second World War, she organised a soup kitchen

Soup kitchen

A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...

 and continued to entertain. She often held small lunch parties at The Dorchester known as 'Ordinaries' after which the guest would receive a small bill.

In 1944 the business, managed by John Fowler, took a lease on 39 Brook Street, Mayfair where it remains to this day. Also in 1944 Sibyl Colefax sold the business to Nancy Tree (Nancy Lancaster

Nancy Lancaster

Nancy Lancaster was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.-Biography:...

 as she became in 1948) for a sum in the order of £10000. She renamed the business Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler Ltd, the name continuing today as the decorating division of the Colefax Group Plc.

Sibyl Colefax died at her home in Lord North Street, Westminster on 22nd September 1950. Harold Nicholson penned an affectionate tribute that appeared shortly after in The Listener

The Listener

The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC in January 1929 which ceased publication in 1991. The entire digitised catalogue was made available online to libraries, educational and research institutions in 2011....

.

Biography

• A Passion for Friendship by Kirsty McLeod. Michael Joseph, London, 1991.
• Great Hostesses by Brian Masters
  Brian Masters
  Brian Masters is British writer best known for his biographies of mass murderers. He has also written about the British aristocracy and worked as a translator....
  
  . Constable, London, 1982.
• 'John Fowler, Prince of Decorators' by Martin Wood. Frances Lincoln, London 2007.