Caroline Leeds; Artist and last ever Duchess of Leeds
Hyfler/Rosner
26 August 2005
http://www.wildflowerantiques.net/article_19.shtml
Caroline Leeds - as she styled herself as an artist - was
the last ever Duchess of Leeds. Since the death of her first
husband, the 11th Duke of Leeds, in 1963, she was widely
known in many social circles in London and in France - for
her sympathetic friendship, for her strikingly beautiful
translucent pale blue eyes, which spotted everything - but
she was also an artist of distinction.
Her first husband was not the last Duke of Leeds. When Jack
Leeds died he was succeeded by an aged kinsman, Sir D'Arcy
Godolphin Osborne, who had been British Minister to the Holy
See, 1936-47, and who continued to live in Rome, cycling
around the city, taking the more handsome students at the
English College in Rome chastely out for dinner. The 12th
Duke survived less than a year and the title became extinct.
Caroline had married Jack Leeds in 1955, as his third wife.
Very much in love with him, she was deeply disappointed to
find that she could not have children. She nursed her
husband devotedly in his decline. Hornby Castle (between
Bedale and Catterick) having been sold off in the 1920s, the
Duke lived largely in Italy and France. After his death,
Caroline bought a lovely house on the southern slopes of
Lectoure, a French hill town with views on a clear day down
to the Pyrenees. She became friends with everyone in the
town and was a well-known figure in her favourite Nina Ricci
hat.
Summering in Lectoure and wintering in London, she led a
productive life as an artist of style and verve. She had
been presented at court as a debutante at the end of the
1940s, but she took up art not as a mere accomplishment. She
studied under Philip Lame and Bernard Adams, honing her
skills in oils, watercolour and chalk. Her landscapes of her
beloved Gers, and of other departments of France, were
wonderful in both oil and watercolour. She showed in many
group exhibitions in London, including the Royal Society of
Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the
Royal Society of British Artists, over half a century, as
well as commercial galleries in Lectoure, London, Paris, New
York and Monte Carlo. She painted in Italy, in
Czechoslovakia, in all parts of Europe that took her fancy -
her paintings boldly signed "Leeds". Her last exhibition in
London was only weeks before her death, at Campbell's of
London Gallery. She also produced admirable portraits, such
as a series of Falkland war heroes now hung at the Royal
Hospital, Chelsea, including a memorable impression of the
Duke of York.
Despite her love for France, Caroline Leeds's taste in food
remained resolutely English and dating from the Attlee era.
Undressed salad, blocks of ham, hard-boiled eggs; guests
were shocked by the invariable Nescafé at breakfast. After I
got to know her well, she accepted me fully as chauffeur,
but my efforts to be cook were assiduously undermined. "Not
too much garlic," she would shout into the kitchen. "Do
please stop putting anchovies into the tomatoes." When she
found me one evening happily making soup for the next day,
she announced firmly, "One does not eat soup for lunch." At
7.30 the next morning she was banging on my bedroom door:
"I've had to throw that soup away, it was heaving . . ."
She married twice more. "I've had two happy marriages, and
one unhappy one," she confided around the time of her 70th
birthday, adding coyly, "I wouldn't mind another happy one."
The unhappy marriage was to Peter Hoos. The other happy
marriage was to Sir Robert Hobart Bt, which lasted from 1975
until his death.
Caroline Vatcher was proud to have been born in Jersey,
daughter of Colonel Henry Vatcher MC. Her stories about
being peremptorily evacuated from the island during the
Second World War were amusing. She always travelled with her
Jersey passport - "frightfully useful", she said. She
recorded her wish to be buried in Jersey.
Negley Harte
Caroline Fleur Vatcher, artist: born 18 May 1931; married
1955 The Duke of Leeds (died 1963), 1968 Peter Hoos (died
2003; marriage dissolved 1975), 1975 Sir Robert Hobart Bt
(died 1988); died London 16 July 2005.