Sibyl Sophie Julia, Lady Colefax (''née'' Halsey; 1874 – 22 September 1950) was an English interior decorator and socialite in the first half of the twentieth century.

Biography

Colefax was born at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, third but only surviving daughter (and fifth and last child) of William Stirling Halsey, of the Indian Civil Service, and Sophie Victoria, daughter of the businessman and politician James Wilson. Her mother's sister, Emily, married the eminent constitutionalist

Walter Bagehot Walter Bagehot ( ; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was an English journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race. He is known for co-founding the ''National Review'' in 1855 ...

. She lived in

Cawnpore Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

, India, until the age of 20 when she went on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

. In 1901, she married patent lawyer Sir

Arthur Colefax Sir Henry Arthur Colefax, KBE, KC (9 July 1866 – 19 February 1936) was a British patent lawyer and Liberal Unionist politician. Colefax was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, and was the son of J S Colefax, a woollen merchant. He was initially educ ...

, who was briefly the MP for Manchester South West in 1910. They set up home at Argyll House, King's Road, Chelsea and at Old Buckhurst in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. Widely admired for her taste, after she had lost most of her fortune in the

Wall Street Crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

she began to decorate professionally, using her formidable address book for contacts. She was able to purchase the decorating division of the antique dealers Stair and Andrew of Bruton Street,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

and established Sibyl Colefax Ltd in partnership with Peggy Ward, the Countess Munster. On her 'retirement' (following a family tragedy) Peggy Ward advised her to take on John Fowler (1906–1977) as her partner, which she did in April 1938. The advent of war cut short this partnership. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she organised a

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

and continued to entertain. She often held small lunch parties at

The Dorchester The Dorchester is a five-star luxury hotel on Park Lane and Deanery Street in London, to the east of Hyde Park. It is one of the world's most prestigious and expensive hotels. The Dorchester opened on 18 April 1931, and it still retains its ...

known as 'Ordinaries' after which the guest would receive a small bill. In 1944, the business, managed by John Fowler, took a lease on 39 Brook Street, Mayfair where it remained until December 2016. Also in 1944 Sibyl Colefax sold the business to Nancy Tree ( Nancy Lancaster as she became in 1948) for a sum in the order of £10000. She renamed the business Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler Ltd, the name continuing today as the decorating division of the

Colefax Group Colefax Group plc is a designer and distributor of furnishing fabrics and wallpaper, based in London in the United Kingdom. History The business was founded in the 1930s by Sibyl, Lady Colefax (1874–1950). In 1938 she was joined in the busin ...

Plc. Colefax died at her home in

Lord North Street Lord North Street in central London is a short street dating from 1722 of Georgian terraced housing running between Smith Square and Great Peter Street in Westminster, the political heartland of British government. As such the properties have ...

, Westminster on 22 September 1950.

Harold Nicolson Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West. Early lif ...

penned an affectionate tribute that appeared shortly after in '' The Listener''. She was the inspiration, according to the art historian John Richardson, for the designer Mrs. Beaver in Evelyn Waugh's ''A Handful of Dust'', and for Mrs. Aldwinkle in Aldous Huxley's ''Those Barren Leaves''. In the 1940s she was referred to frequently by the diarist and socialite politician

Henry "Chips" Channon Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), often known as Chips Channon, was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that Amer ...

, who describes her as "charming, gentle and sad".

Biography

See also

References

Further reading