Lucy Cavendish

Lucy Caroline Cavendish, also known as Lady Frederick Cavendish ( Lyttelton; 5 September 1841 – 22 April 1925), was a pioneer of women's education. A daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she married into another aristocratic family, the Cavendishes, in 1864. Eighteen years later her husband, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was murdered in Dublin by Irish republicans (a victim of the Phoenix Park murders). After his death she devoted much of her time to the cause of girls' and women's education, for which she was honoured in her lifetime with an honorary degree, and posthumously when, in 1965, Cambridge University named its first post-graduate college for women after her. Biography Lucy Lyttelton was born at Hagley Hall in Worcestershire, the second daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, and his wife, Mary Glynne, whose sister married William Ewart Gladstone. In 1863 she was appointed a Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria, whom she attended until her marriage the following year. Marriage and husband's murder On 7 June 1864 she married Lord Frederick Cavendish, the second son of the Duke of Devonshire. They had no children. Cavendish was elected to Parliament in 1865. In the same year she was excited to join the Ladies Diocesan Association run by Catharine Tait with the prospect of visiting workhouses to try to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.