Miss Seymour as 'Fortitude'

Identified in the Silvy daybooks as ‘Miss Lilack Seymour,' this is Miss Eliza Horatia Frederica Seymour (1833-1896), daughter of Frederick Charles William Seymour. On 23 September 1861, she married Henry Agar, 3rd Viscount Clifden of Gowran. Her first husband died less than three years later, aged only 40, ‘from softening of the brain.' Lady Clifden remarried on 12 October 1875. Her second husband was Sir Walter George Sterling of Faskine, 3rd Bt. Sterling.

Between 1867 and 1872 she held the office of Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria. In 1872 she was created an Extra Lady of the Bedchamber.

Henry Greville described her as ‘lovely to behold, full of grace and graciousness of demeanour.’

She died on 23 April 1896, aged 62, at Burr’s Wood in Kent and was buried at Groombridge.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 16 March 1861.