Pauline Payne Whitney Paget (March 21, 1874 – November 22, 1916), was an American heiress and a member of the prominent

Whitney family The Whitney family is an American family notable for their business enterprises, social prominence, wealth and philanthropy, founded by John Whitney (1592–1673), who came from London, England to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1635. The historic fa ...

Early life

She was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York, to William C. Whitney and Flora (née Payne) Whitney. Her father was corporation counsel for

from 1875 to 1882,

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

from 1885 to 1889 (under President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

), and a force in street-railway affairs until his retirement in 1902. Pauline Whitney had her social debut in 1892. She received a large fortune from her uncle, Colonel

Oliver Hazard Payne Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 – June 27, 1917) was an American businessman, organizer of the American Tobacco trust, and assisted with the formation of U.S. Steel, and was affiliated with Standard Oil. Early life Oliver Hazard Payne was ...

(1839-1917), one of the founders and original directors of the Standard Oil Company. Shortly before her death she divided $4,000,000 between her two daughters.

Personal life

On November 12, 1895, she was married to the British-born Almeric Hugh Paget (1861-1949). He was educated at Harrow, and was the sixth and youngest son of Cecilia (née Wyndham) Paget and Lord Alfred Paget, and a grandson of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, who commanded the British cavalry at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

in 1815. The marriage was solemnized at St. Thomas's Church, New York City, and among those attending it was President

. With Paget she had two daughters, but the marriage was not entirely happy. * Olive Cecilia (1899-1974), who married three times and was the owner of

Leeds Castle Leeds Castle is a castle in Kent, England, southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds. A castle has existed on the site since 857. In the 13th century, it came into th ...

. * Dorothy Wyndham (1905-1960), who never married.

Move to England

In 1893, her husband joined

Henry Melville Whitney Henry Melville Whitney (October 22, 1839 – January 25, 1923) was an American industrialist, the founder of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and later the Dominion Coal Company Ltd. and the Dominion Iron and Steel ...

in establishing the Dominion Coal Company Ltd. and, in 1901, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, Ltd. at Sydney, Nova Scotia. That same year, the Pagets moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, ostensibly because of Pauline's ill health. Paget was later elected to the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

as the Unionist party candidate for

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, serving from 1910 to 1917. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, at the Summerdown convalescent camp in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

and at other facilities in England, she organized the Almeric Paget Massage Corps to provide physiotherapy to injured soldiers by trained

masseuse Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In E ...

s. During this time, she became known as the "Angel of Summerdown". The corps started in late 1914 and continued to operate after her death.

Death and burial

Pauline Paget died after a three weeks' illness at

Esher, Surrey Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up A ...

, on November 22, 1916, at the age of forty-two."Mrs. Almeric H. Paget Dies. Former Miss Pauline Whitney of New York Expires at Esher, Eng.", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', November 23, 1916. She was buried at

Hertingfordbury Hertingfordbury is a small village in Hertfordshire, England, close to the county town of Hertford. It was mentioned in the ''Domesday Book''. Hertingfordbury is also the name of a neighbouring civil parish, which does not contain the village. ...

, Hertfordshire. After her death, her husband resigned from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

and was elevated to the peerage as

Baron Queenborough Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

. Lord Queensborough later remarried to another American heiress, Edith Starr Miller, with whom he had three additional daughters before their divorce.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Pauline Payne 1874 births 1916 deaths American socialites Whitney family Pauline