Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley 1867-1920

On 3rd October 1864 [her father] Charles Henry Gurney [aged 30] and [her mother] Alice Maria Prinsep [aged 20] were married.

On 8th August 1867 Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley was born to Charles Henry Gurney [aged 33] and Alice Maria Prinsep [aged 23].

1885. George Frederick Watts [aged 67]. Portrait of Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley [aged 17].

On 7th May 1885 William Ward 1st Earl of Dudley [aged 68] died at Dudley House Park Lane. His son [her future husband] William [aged 17] succeeded 2nd Earl of Dudley of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire, 12th Baron Ward of Birmingham.

The Royal Academy Conversazione, 1891, by George Henry Grenville Manton [aged 36].

John Seymour Lucas, Dame Alice Ellen Terry [aged 43], Sir William Quiller Orchardson, Rachel, Countess of Dudley [aged 23], Marcus Stone, Henry Stacy Marks, Sir Henry Irving, Unidentified man, Unidentified man, Sir John Everett Millais [aged 61], William Charles Thomas Dobson.

Unidentified woman, James Sant, William Powell Frith, Sir Hubert von Herkomer [aged 41], Unidentified woman, Briton Riviere, Unidentified man, John Pettie, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema [aged 54], Frederic Leighton [aged 60], Baron Leighton.

Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Walter William Ouless, Thomas Faed, Robert Walker Macbeth, Edward Onslow Ford [aged 38], William Frederick Yeames, Unidentified woman, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones [aged 57], Unidentified man.

Mary Anderson, John Calcott Horsley, possibly Joanna Margaret Hadley, Unidentified man, Henry Tanworth Wells, possibly Alice Joanna Street, Marion Harry Spielmann, Unidentified woman.

In 1891 William Humble Ward 2nd Earl of Dudley [aged 23] and Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley [aged 23] were married. She by marriage Countess of Dudley of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire. He the son of William Ward 1st Earl of Dudley and Georgina Moncrieffe Countess Dudley [aged 44].

1899. Frederick John Jenkins [aged 27]. Portrait of Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley [aged 31].

On 9th February 1899 [her father] Charles Henry Gurney [aged 65] died.

In 1913 Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley [aged 45] commissioned a new reredos at Saint Michael and All Angels Church, Great Witley [Map] from Salviati of Venice. The three lamps hanging in the sanctuary were given by the Countess in thanks for her husband [aged 45] and his two brothers [John Hubert Ward [aged 42] and Robert Arthur Ward [aged 41]] returning safely from the Boer War. The initials on the mosaics appear to be those of the three brothers.

On 22nd November 1919 [her mother] Alice Maria Prinsep [aged 75] died.

On 26th June 1920 Rachel Anne Gurney Countess Dudley [aged 52] drowned at Screebe House, Connemara. She had left the house alone to swim in the sea-lake from which her body was later recovered.

On 30th April 1924 [her former husband] William Humble Ward 2nd Earl of Dudley [aged 56] and Gertrude "Gertie" Millar Countess of Dudley [aged 45] were married. She by marriage Countess of Dudley of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire. He the son of William Ward 1st Earl of Dudley and [her former mother-in-law] Georgina Moncrieffe Countess Dudley [aged 77].

On 29th June 1932 [her former husband] William Humble Ward 2nd Earl of Dudley [aged 65] died. He was buried at the Earl of Dudley's Memory Garden, St Michael's Church, Himley [Map]. His son William [aged 38] succeeded 3rd Earl of Dudley of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire, 13th Baron Ward of Birmingham.