Florence Dixie

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (née Douglas; 24 May 1855 – 7 November 1905) was a Scottish writer, war correspondent, and feminist. Her account of travelling Across Patagonia, her children's books The Young Castaways and Aniwee; or, The Warrior Queen, and her feminist utopia Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900 all deal with feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society.

Early life

Born in Cummertrees, Dumfries, Scotland on 24 May 1855, Lady Florence Douglas was the daughter of Caroline Margaret Clayton, daughter of General Sir William Clayton, 5th Baronet, Member of Parliament for Great Marlow, and Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry.

She had a twin brother, Lord James Edward Sholto Douglas, an older sister, Lady Gertrude Douglas, and three older brothers: John, Viscount Drumlanrig, later 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Lord Francis Douglas, and the Reverend Lord Archibald Edward Douglas.

Lady Florence has been described as a tomboy who tried to match her brothers in physical activities, whether swimming, riding, or hunting. She rode astride, wore her hair short in a boyish crop, and refused to conform to fashion when being presented to Queen Victoria. She and her twin brother James were particularly close during childhood, calling each other "Darling" (Florence) and "Dearest" (James). She was also close to her older brother John, whom she resembled in temperament, both being "fearless, dynamic and opinionated".

Her childhood was marked by a number of dramatic and even tragic events. On 6 August 1858, when she was three, Lady Florence's father died; he was widely believed to have killed himself. In 1862, his widow, Caroline, acted upon a long-formed conviction and converted to Roman Catholicism. She took her youngest children, Archibald, then twelve, and Florence and James, aged seven, to France, where she could educate them as she wished. This led the children's guardians to threaten Lady Queensberry with an action under English law to take her children away from her. The three were too young to choose a guardian under Scottish law. In the event, they remained in France for two years. Falconer Atlee, the British Consul at Nantes, offered them a place of safety when their first location was discovered, and the Emperor Napoleon III eventually extended Lady Queensberry his protection, ensuring that she could keep the custody of the three children. Archibald converted to Rome and took holy orders, becoming a priest. Caroline's older daughter, Gertrude, also became a Roman Catholic. When her Anglican fiancé would not agree to their children being brought up in that faith, Gertrude's engagement was broken off. She entered a convent in Hammersmith and completed her novitiate to become a Sister of the Black Veil in 1867, but later left the order.

Eventually, it was agreed that Caroline would retain custody of her younger children, and they returned to England. Lady Florence was first educated at home by a governess, but is described as "defiant, rebellious and restless". After returning from France at the age of nine, the twins were separated. James was sent to a Roman Catholic boarding school, and Florence to a convent school, which she hated. But she found some consolation in writing poetry: her childhood verses were published much later as The songs of a child, and other poems, under the pseudonym 'Darling'.

Another tragedy struck the family just days before Florence's eldest brother, John Douglas, was to reach his majority as 9th Marquess of Queensberry. As guests gathered for a lavish celebration, word came that on 14 July 1865, the 18-year-old Lord Francis Douglas had fallen to his death with three others, after achieving the first ascent of the Matterhorn. Lord Queensberry travelled post-haste to Zermatt, with the intention of bringing his brother's body home, but nothing had been found of Lord Francis but some tattered shreds of his clothing. Queensberry, alone, without a guide, and starting out by moonlight, attacked the Matterhorn himself and made it as far as "the Hut". It was largely a matter of chance that two guides found and rescued him before he died of cold. He wrote apologetically to Florence, "I thought and thought where he was, and called him, and wondered if I should ever see him again. I was half mad with misery, and I could not help it." "Exceedingly amiable and talented" Francis's death was deeply felt by his family. In 1876, Florence accompanied Queensberry on a return to Zermatt, and he showed her the slopes where Francis had died. Beyond the family, the tragedy was a long-running sensation, reported by newspapers all over the world, often in tones both sensational and denunciatory.

Marriage and children

On 3 April 1875, at the age of nineteen, Douglas married Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet (1851–1924), known as "Sir A.B.C.D." or "Beau". Beau, who had succeeded his father as the 11th baronet on 8 January 1872, had an income of £10,000 per year, equivalent to £977,683 in 2025, a country house, Bosworth Hall, near Market Bosworth, and a London townhouse in the fashionable district of Mayfair. He served as High Sheriff of Leicestershire for 1876. Though Florence was only five feet tall, while Beau stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), Florence became the dominant partner in the marriage, reportedly ruling her husband "with a rod of iron".

The young couple had two sons, George Douglas (born 18 January 1876), who later became the 12th baronet, and Albert Edward Wolstan (born 26 September 1878, died 1940), whose godfather was the Prince of Wales.

Both husband and wife shared a love of adventure and the outdoor life, and are generally considered to have had a happy marriage, certainly the happiest of the Douglas siblings. Nonetheless, Beau's habits of drinking and of gambling for high stakes had catastrophic consequences for the family. The couple were reportedly referred to by contemporaries as "Sir Always and Lady Sometimes Tipsy". In 1885 Beau's ancestral home and estate at Bosworth were sold to pay his debts.

"For some time past I have been fighting against the terrible consequences of my husband's immense losses on the Turf and at gambling . . It was a great blow to me to find that the last remnant of a once splendid fortune must at once go to pay this debt. Ruin ... Beau ... has been so accustomed to have heaps of money at his command that he cannot understand that it is all gone .... By selling Bosworth and the property these (debts) could be met." – Lady Florence Dixie

Following loss of the estate, the couple moved to Glen Stuart, Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. One of the houses on Lord Queensberry's Scottish estate of Kinmount, it had previously been the home of Lady Florence's mother, the Dowager Marchioness.

Writing

In 1877, Lady Florence published her first novel, Abel Avenged: a Dramatic Tragedy. A number of Dixie's books, particularly her children's books The Young Castaways, or, The Child Hunters of Patagonia and Aniwee, or, The Warrior Queen, and her adult novels Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900 and Isola, or the Disinherited: A Revolt for Woman and all the Disinherited develop feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society. Her final novel, a semi-autobiographical work entitled The Story of Ijain, or the Evolution of a Mind appeared in 1903.

Although she published fiction for both adults and children, Dixie is best remembered for her travel books, Across Patagonia (1880) and In the Land of Misfortune (1882), both of which are still reprinted. In these books Dixie presents herself as the protagonist of the story. By doing so she defies the male tradition of quoting other travel writers who have visited and written on the area, and creates a unique feminine style of travel writing in the nineteenth century.