In one of
my previous blogs I mentioned the suffragist Lady Emily Lutyens. Emily was née Bulwer Lytton, daughter of
the Viceroy of India Robert, and wife of one
of the most prominent architects of her time, Edwin Lutyens. Edwin became
famous as a country-house architect, but even more so as the architect of New
Delhi, a job which he got through his father-in-law of course. Emily
became a member of the Theosophical Society in 1910. As an upper-class lady she became a pillar in the financial and
social support of the Society. Theosophical connections or influence do not interest me much this time, however. I am more interested in the architect Edwin himself and his connections. Because these eventually, in a wide arch and only indirectly, come back to my own family. More precisely: my mother. It is too amusing a story not to tell, with an unusual twist, interesting historical dimensions and even a connection with art! It also serves to tell how someone can strike a deep note within someone else, without ever hearing how effective the strike had been.