Blanche Elizabeth Campbell "Baffy" Dugdale (née Balfour, 23 May 1880 – 16 May 1948) was a British author and Zionist. Chaim Weizmann called her, "an ardent, lifelong friend of Zionism".

Early life

She was born Blanche Elizabeth Campbell Balfour on 23 May 1880 at 32 Addison Road,

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

, London, the eldest of the five children of Eustace James Anthony Balfour (1854–1911), an architect and the youngest brother of prime minister Arthur Balfour, and his wife, Lady Frances Campbell (1858–1931), daughter of George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll. She was educated at home, and received no formal education. She was always known as "Baffy", a childhood rendering of her surname, Balfour.

Career

Dugdale worked in the

Naval Intelligence Department The Naval Intelligence Department (NID) was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty from 1887 until 1912 when most of its subsidiary divisions were absorbed during the creation of the Admiralty War Staff department that included a new Naval ...

. She was associated with the League of Nations Union in various role from its founding in 1920 until it ended, and was one of the British delegates to the 1932 League Assembly. She always signed her articles Blanche E. C. Dugdale, but everyone knew her as Baffy Dugdale. Chaim Weizmann called her, "an ardent, lifelong friend of Zionism". In 1936, she published a two-volume biography ''Arthur James Balfour'' about her uncle, the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.

Personal life

Balfour married on 18 November 1902, at St Mary Abbots church,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, to Edgar Trevelyan Stratford Dugdale (1876–1964), a Lloyd's of London underwriter and "name", the second son of William Stratford Dugdale of Merevale Hall, Atherstone, Warwickshire. It was at her suggestion that Edgar made his abridged translation of ''Mein Kampf''.Barnes, James J.and Barnes, Patience P. (1980) ''Hitler's Mein Kampf in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930–39'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp.3-4 They had two children, Frances and Michael, and lived at no. 1

Roland Gardens Roland Gardens (foaled 9 May 1975 – after 1993) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire best known for winning the classic 2000 Guineas in 1978. During a racing career which lasted from 1977 until 1979 he ran sixteen times and won f ...

, South Kensington, London.

Later life

Dugdale died on 16 May 1948 (the day after she had heard that the state of Israel was established) at Kilkerran House, by Maybole, Ayrshire, the home of her daughter and son-in-law Sir James Fergusson, 8th Baronet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dugdale, Blanche 1880 births 1948 deaths British women writers 20th-century British biographers Blanche British Zionists People from Kensington British women biographers