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Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, Countess of Minto

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Mary, Countess Minto, in 1910

Mary Minto (Mary Caroline Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, countess of Minto, 1858 – 1940) was vicereine of India, courtier to Queen Mary, and a healthcare campaigner in Canada and India.

Early life and family

She was born Mary Caroline Grey on 13 November 1858, the youngest of five children of General Charles Grey, courtier to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, and his wife, Caroline, née Farquhar. She was raised at the Court of St James’s in Windsor and St James’s Palace, London.[1]  

On 28 July 1883, she married Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, becoming countess of Minto when her husband succeeded to his father’s title in 1891. They had five children: Eileen, Ruby, Violet, Victor and Gavin.[2]  

Healthcare initiatives in Canada and India

Lady Minto and her five children dressed for winter in Ottowa, 1901

In 1898, Lady Minto’s husband was appointed governor-general of Canada. Her projects during their six-year stay in Canada included instituting a Queen Victoria memorial fund to raise money for rural cottage hospitals with the Victorian Order of Nurses. Several hospitals were founded in her name, including the Lady Minto Hospital in Ontario and the Lady Minto wing at the Ottawa Maternity Hospital.[1]  

The Mintos were appointed viceroy and vicereine of India from 1905–1910. She became involved with the Countess of Dufferin Fund for the improvement of women’s healthcare, using her connections to secure government funding for it, and launched the Lady Minto Indian Nursing Association, which built on the work of Mary Curzon.[3][4]  

Later life

On her return to England, Lady Minto was appointed lady of the bedchamber to Queen Mary, and continued her involvement in healthcare programmes, serving on the board of the Territorial Army Nursing Service. In 1934 she used her journals and her husband’s correspondence as the basis for her book, India, Minto and Morley, and she also contributed to Margot Asquith’s Myself When Young.[2]  

Lady Minto as vicereine of India

Predeceased by her husband and two of her children, including the death of her son Gavin in the First World War, she died at her home at Hambleton, Godalming, on 14 July 1940.[2]

Lady Minto was a hockey fan and a keen figure-skater.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Biography – GREY, MARY CAROLINE (Elliot, Viscountess MELGUND and Countess of MINTO) – Volume XVI (1931-1940) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  2. ^ a b c "Kynynmound [née Grey], Mary Caroline Elliot-Murray-, countess of Minto (1858–1940), courtier, vicereine, and nursing association and hospital founder". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-369131?rskey=e1mvqb&result=1. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  3. ^ Sehrawat, Samiksha (2013-10-01). Colonial Medical Care in North India. Oxford University Press. pp. 120, 149. ISBN 978-0-19-809660-3.
  4. ^ Thomas, N. (2001). Negotiating the boundaries of gender and empire : Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India, 1898-1905 (Thesis). University of Oxford.
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