[1] Beginning in 1933, she published the Saturday Review,[1] which was best known for its attacks on what the paper labelled the "unpatriotic" National Governments of Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin.

Gretton was a keen supporter of the turf and owner of celebrated racehorses (such as Isonomy, winning the Stayers' Triple Crown).

Later that year Lucy was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her creation of the Bluebirds' Nest, a rest home on Hampstead Heath for nurses serving on the Western Front.

Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Hugh Trenchard held the view that there was no advantage as aircraft development would continue whether or not the UK competed.

The Royal Aero Club sent a statement to the Cabinet on 22 January 1931, offering to raise £100,000, if the Government would rescind the Air Ministry's decrees on planes, pilots and policing.

One newspaper sent a telegram to MacDonald stating that, "To prevent the socialist government from being spoilsports, Lady Houston will be responsible for all extra expenses beyond what Sir Philip Sassoon[10] (President of the Royal Aero Club) says can be found, so that Great Britain can take part in the race for the Schneider trophy."

The gift gave Lady Houston an opportunity to attack the Labour government, with the declaration "Every true Briton would rather sell his last shirt than admit that England could not afford to defend herself.

In October 1934 Lady Houston sent a cable to the winners of the MacRobertson Air Race, Tom Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott; "Your achievement has thrilled me through, oh brave men of my heart...

Frustrated by what she saw as the weakness of Ramsay MacDonald and then Stanley Baldwin as Prime Ministers she tried to push Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and ultimately from 1935 the new king, her friend Edward VIII, into the role of virtual dictator of the country.

She admired the stance of both Hitler and Mussolini against Soviet Russia, believing that its political ambitions presented the greatest threat to the power of Britain and its Empire.

However, she was so distraught by the abdication, which she believed was the result of sinister forces coming from Moscow,[5] that she stopped eating and died of a heart attack on 29 December 1936, aged 79, at her home, Byron Cottage, Highgate.

[1] Lady Houston is depicted in the 1942 film The First of the Few, directed by Leslie Howard, showing her support for the development of British aircraft and her anti-government views.