1887-03-08

The British sculptor and translator UNA VINCENZO, AKA LADY TROUBRIDGE was born on this date (d. 1963).  Born Margot Elena Gertrude Taylor, she is best known as the long-time partner (28 years) of Marguerite “John” Radclyffe-Hall, the author of The Well of Loneliness.  She married Admiral Ernest Thomas Troubridge in 1908 and gained her title when Admiral Troubridge was knighted in 1919.  Troubridge was an educated woman who had many achievements in her own right. Most notably she was a successful translator and introduced the French writer Colette to English readers. Her talent as a sculptor prompted Nijinsky to sit for her several times. 

Troubridge met Hall in 1915 as Troubridge was the cousin of singer Mabel Batten who was Hall’s lover at the time. Mabel died in 1916, and Hall and Troubridge moved in together the following year.  Troubridge wrote about the intensity of their relationship in her diary: “I could not, having come to know her, imagine life without her.” 

Both Troubridge and Hall identified as ‘inverts’, a term used by sexologists such as Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis usually to connote what we now think of as homosexuality.  Hall and Troubridge raised and showed dachshunds and griffons. The dachshunds shown in the Romaine Brooks portrait of Troubridge were a prize winning pair given to her by Hall.