[2] Between 1908 and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the earl and countess lived a full social life and were often written about and pictured in the press.

At the outbreak of the war the countess left her two children at home and volunteered to work at a hospital in France run by her sister-in-law Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland.

[3] Formally enlisted into the Red Cross, she continued to work at her sister-in-law's hospital until 1917 resigning before the birth of her third child in November 1917.

[7] Despite the affairs and living arrangements the countess and her husband remained married until his death in August 1939.

[8] By 1942 she was in charge of the Red Cross unit packing food parcels for prisoners of war, one of whom was her eldest son, Hamish Erskine.