Rachel Frances Alexander

Her father William Cleverly Alexander was an early supporter of the painter James McNeill Whistler, who painted two of her elder sisters.

Rachel herself was painted by the artist William Nicholson and she and her younger sister Jean donated seventeen paintings from their father's art collection to the National Gallery and pieces of his Japanese collection to the Victoria and Albert (now housed in the British Museum).

The house became a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospital for recuperating soldiers and was returned to the sisters after the war.

"[16] In 1926 she was a founding member of the Kensington Housing Trust[17] and she was elected to the Council of the Society that same year.

[18] In 1867 Aubrey House, under the prior owners Peter and Clementia Taylor, was the scene of the first meeting of the Committee of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage.

[19] Dame Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929) became a member of the Society’s executive committee that year, aged 19.

[25] In 1935 she was instrumental in opening a nursery school for 40 children at the Housing Estate in Dalgarno Gardens.

[32][33] Rachel owned the painting through at least 1956, when she is cited as the owner by Lillian Browse in her book William Nicholson .