Frederica Dorothy Violet Carrington, Lady Rose,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(6 June 1910 – 26 January 2002) was an expatriate British writer domiciled for over half her life in

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. She was one of the twentieth century's leading scholars on the island's culture and history, about which she wrote numerous books and articles.

Early life

Dorothy Carrington was the daughter of Major General Sir

Frederick Carrington Major General Sir Frederick Carrington, (23 August 1844, Cheltenham – 22 March 1913, Cheltenham), was a British soldier and friend of Cecil Rhodes. He acquired fame by suppressing the 1896 Matabele rebellion. Biography Carrington was educ ...

, known for his crushing of the Matabele Rebellion and a friend of

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

. Her mother was Susan Elwes. Both her parents had died by the time she was eight. Subsequently, she read English at St Margaret's Hall, Oxford from which she fled. Eventually, in 1936, she married an Austrian, Franz Otto Resseguier Waldschutz, whose family estates in Poland had been destroyed during the First World War. Franz went out to

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

, Africa, where she joined him for a short time but the wilderness did not suit her, so she returned to Europe in 1937. However Franz preferred Rhodesia and stayed and built an estate called Wilton. They divorced in 1937. A second marriage, to Darcy Sproul-Bolton, ended with his death in the late 1930s. She then immersed herself in the London art world, and in 1942 organised an exhibition at the

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

, "Imaginative Art since the War". One of the exhibitors was the surrealist painter Sir

Francis Rose Francis Rose MBE (29 September 1921 – 15 July 2006) was an English field botanist and conservationist. He was an author, researcher and teacher. His ecological interests in Britain and Europe included bryophytes, fungi, lichens, higher plant ...

, whom she married shortly afterwards. He was a friend of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

Corsica

In July 1948, Carrington and Rose made the first of four trips to Corsica. She had intended to write a book and move on. But in 1954 she settled on the island in

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French: ; it, Aiaccio or ; co, Aiacciu , locally: ; la, Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the ''Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' (capital city of Corsica). ...

, without Rose. They divorced in 1966. In 1971 she wrote her masterpiece, ''Granite Island''. Later works included ''The Dream Hunters of Corsica'', which examined the dark, threatening side of the Corsican psyche, and ''Napoleon And His Parents On The Threshold Of History''. Partly as a result of her work, French archaeologists were persuaded to travel to Corsica and study the now famous megalithic site of

Filitosa Filitosa is a megalithic site in southern Corsica, France. The period of occupation spans from the end of the Neolithic era and the beginning of the Bronze Age, until around the Roman times in Corsica. Location The site lies on road D57, ...

. Dorothy Carrington was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1986 she was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The University of Corsica gave her an honorary doctorate in 1991 and the Queen awarded her an MBE. ''Granite Island'' won the

Heinemann Award The W. H. Heinemann Award is an award established by William Heinemann who bequeathed funds to the Royal Society of Literature to establish a literary prize, given from 1945 to 2003.Directory of Grants in the Humanities The Heinemann Award is give ...

Major works

* ''The Traveller's Eye '' (1947) * ''The Mouse And The Mermaid'' (1948) * ''This Corsica - The Complete Guide'' (1962) * ''Granite Island: Portrait Of Corsica'' (1971) * ''Napoleon And His Parents On The Threshold Of History'' (1988) * ''The Dream Hunters Of Corsica'' (1995)

References

External links

Guardian ObituaryGlasgow Herald ObituaryScotsman ObituaryFrench Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrington, Dorothy English travel writers British women travel writers Writers from Ajaccio 1910 births 2002 deaths People from Cotswold District Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Wives of baronets British expatriates in France