A noted local historian and a contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography, she was the first woman to be elected President of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, and was also among the first women to be appointed a magistrate for the Exeter Bench.
The younger George was a solicitor who later served as a London County Councillor (1895–1907) and Liberal Member of Parliament for East Islington (1906–17), for which service he was knighted in 1916.
[7][8] Together, they had a son and three daughters:[2] Lady Radford was an enthusiastic antiquarian, and among her works was an edited and annotated version of the Tavistock Charter, which had been granted to the town during the reign of Charles II; it had largely been ignored by local historians before she unearthed it during searches at the Public Record Office in London.
[6][11] Her other research included studies into Sir Francis Drake's birthplace, and contributions to the Dictionary of National Biography,[11] mostly relating to Devon clockmakers (she was also a collector of Plymouth porcelain and wrote elsewhere on that subject).
[1] She moved to Exeter from the couple's home at Chiswick House, Ditton Hill, Surbiton around the time of her husband's death in 1917,[16] and involved herself with various local organisations, including the Friends of Exeter Cathedral (of which she was a council member) and the West of England branch of the United Association of Great Britain and France, which she helped to found.