Violet Gordon-Woodhouse

[1] Violet Kate Eglinton Gwynne was born at 97 Harley Street, St Marylebone, London, into a wealthy family with an estate in Sussex, England.

She was the second daughter and fourth of seven children of James Eglinton Anderson Gwynne (1832–1915), an engineer, inventor, and landowner, and Mary Earle Purvis (1841–1923).

[2] Violet's maternal grandfather, Royal Navy officer and merchant William Purvis (1796–1854) from Dalgety Bay, Scotland, married Cornelia Louisa Intveld (1808–1857) in 1822.

Her maternal grandmother was an Ono Niha ranee (a term that covered every rank from chieftain's daughter to princess) who married a prominent Dutch colonial official and merchant.

This "foreign blood" caused opposition to Violet Gordon-Woodhouse's father's family to her parents' marriage and so they eloped.

Violet broke off an engagement to a wealthy Sussex neighbour, Viscount Gage, after human sexuality was explained to her.

In 1899, William Barrington (heir to a viscountcy) moved into the marital house, joined later by Max Labouchere and Dennis Tollemache.

An important influence on her was Arnold Dolmetsch, a pioneer of the early music revival, who began making copies of old keyboard instruments in the 1890s.

[12] She was close to many of the leading artists of her day, including Dame Ethel Smyth, Siegfried Sassoon, Irene, Lady Dean Paul (also known as Poldowski), and George Bernard Shaw.