Ruth Alice Hannah Mary Wood, Countess of Halifax (née Primrose, 18 April 1916 – 31 August 1989), was a British
racehorse
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
owner. She was one of the first three women to be elected as a member of the
Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, amo ...
in December 1977, alongside her half-sister
Priscilla Hastings
Priscilla Victoria Hastings (''née'' Bullock, 28 February 1920 – 12 August 2010) was a British racehorse owner and trainer. She was one of the first three women to be elected as a member of the Jockey Club in December 1977, alongside her half-si ...
and
Helen Johnson Houghton.
She was the only child of
Neil Primrose, son of
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, and his wife, Lady Victoria Stanley, the third child of Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. Lady Victoria married Primrose on 7 April 1915, but he died in Palestine in 1917. His widow remarried in 1919, to Sir Malcolm Bullock, 1st Baronet, Malcolm Bullock, who was a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative MP from 1923 to 1953 and who became a baronet in 1954. Ruth's half-sister Priscilla Hastings, Priscilla was born in 1920, but Lady Victoria Bullock was killed in an accident while hunting with the Quorn in 1927. She left her elder daughter a collection of paintings of racehorses by George Stubbs.
Ruth Primrose married Charles Wood, 2nd Earl of Halifax, Charles Wood in 1936 and became Countess of Halifax after the death of her father-in-law in 1959, when her husband inherited the Earl of Halifax, earldom.
They had three children:
* Lady Caroline Victoria Wood (10 September 1937 – 15 November 2014), who married Joe Feilden, the eldest son of Major General Randle Feilden, Sir Randle Feilden in 1958; they later divorced and she remarried John Gosling in 1970
* Lady Susan Diana Wood (born 22 September 1938), who married Brigadier Ian Darsie Watson in 1959.
* Peter Wood, 3rd Earl of Halifax, Charles Edward Peter Neil Wood, 3rd Earl of Halifax (born 14 March 1944).
The countess and her husband won Epsom Derby, The Derby with Shirley Heights (horse), Shirley Heights in 1978; the horse was jointly bred by the earl and his son.
Her husband, who died in 1980, was master of the Middleton Foxhounds for more than 30 seasons. They are buried together in the churchyard of All Saints, Kirby Underdale.
References
Lady Caroline Gosling - obituary The Telegraph, 25 December 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Ruth
1916 births
1989 deaths
British countesses, Halifax
British racehorse owners and breeders
British people of German-Jewish descent
Wood family, Ruth
Clan Primrose, Ruth