Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (1855 -1905)

Image from Vanity Fair Magazine

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (1855 -1905), daughter of the 7th marquess of Queensberry. Authoress, war correspondent and traveller.

From an early age Florence showed a fondness for sport and travel together with a facility for writing. After marrying, she combined these talents in a journey to Patagonia and published Across Patagonia in 1880.

In 1879 she was the war correspondent for the Morning Post, covering the Anglo Zulu war in Southern Africa. Arriving too late, she justified her visit by interviewing the defeated King Cetshwayo. Impressed by his dignity she returned home to successfully campaign for his re-instatement. She had strong views on African politics, publishing In the Land of Misfortune in 1882.

Dixie played a key role is establishing the game of women's association football, organising exhibition matches for charity, and in 1895 she became President of the British Ladies' Football Club, stipulating that "the girls should enter into the spirit of the game with heart and soul." She arranged for a women's football team from London to tour Scotland.

With an Irish grandmother, Florrie embraced the cause of Irish Home Rule. Vociferously criticising the methods of the Irish Land League which inspired and assisted Scotland's crofters in their struggle to obtain security of tenure she was attacked by "Fenians" and stabbed. Queen Victoria, at nearby Windsor Castle, sent her gillie John Brown to investigate.

In the 1890s, in a distinct turn-around, she condemned as cruel the blood sports she had once so greatly enjoyed, publishing The Horrors of Sport (1891).

Lady Florence Dixie died of diphtheria at the age of 50. The New York Times reported that the "Author, Champion of Woman's Rights, and War Correspondent" had died on 7 November at her home in Glen Stuart, Dumfriesshire.

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