[1] Male homosexual acts were a criminal offence in the United Kingdom at the time, but women were expected to turn a blind eye to every kind of their husband's infidelity.

Lady Henry defied the social conventions by separating from her husband and suing him for custody over their son, thereby making his sexual orientation public.

Her father died in 1883, leaving her Eastnor Castle, estates in Gloucestershire and Surrey, properties in London and slums in the East End.

[1][2] During Lady Henry's term as president of the BWTA, the organisation grew rapidly and attained great political and social influence.

She supported licensing prostitution in parts of India as a means of dealing with the spread of sexually transmitted disease among British soldiers.

After arguments with Josephine Butler, Lady Henry was compelled to recant her views in 1898, to prevent the organisation from falling apart.

Upon Willard's death the same year, Lady Henry assumed the office of president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Association and held it until 1906, visiting the United States for the last time in 1903.

In 1913, the readers of London Evening News voted Lady Henry as the woman they would most like as the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.

[1] She was survived by her estranged husband and by their only child, who married Lady Katherine, a daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans.

When her husband's elder brother's male line died out in 1984, Lady Henry's great-grandson David became the 11th Duke of Beaufort.