Queer Places:
The Glen, Traquair, Innerleithen, Scottish Borders, EH44 6PX
20 Cavendish Square, Marylebone, London, W1G 0RN
The Wharf, 43 Church Street, Sutton Courtenay, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4NJ
44 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP, UK
14 Kensington Square, London W8 5HH, UK
All Saints Churchyard, All Saints Ln, Sutton Courtenay, Abingdon OX14 4AE, United Kingdom

Emma Alice Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, known widely as Margot Asquith (February 2, 1864 - July 28, 1945), was born Emma Alice Margaret Tennant on February 2, 1864, at The Glen, the family's country estate in Peeblesshire, Scotland. She was the 12th and youngest child of industrialist and politician Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, and Emma Winsloe, and was a great-great-granddaughter of John Walter, the founder of The Times. Growing up wild and uninhibited alongside her sister Laura, Margot was a venturesome child who roamed the moors, climbed roofs by moonlight, and rode horses up the front steps of the estate house, establishing riding and golf as lifelong passions. Educated at home in her father's vast library, she also attended a seminary in London and spent five months studying music and German in Dresden.

In her youth, she and her sister Laura entered London society in 1881 and became the central female figures of "The Souls," an elite, aristocratic group of intellectuals. Laura's marriage in 1885 and subsequent death in 1888 deeply impacted Margot's life. Before her own marriage, E.F. Benson's 1893 novel Dodo was thought to be based on her personality. On May 10, 1894, she married H. H. Asquith, acting as a spur to his ambition and introducing him to glittering high society circles. The marriage brought a complex dynamic with her husband's children from his first marriage, particularly her stepdaughter Violet, leading to frequent domestic tensions and chronic misunderstandings, while Margot herself bore five children of her own, of whom only two survived infancy: Elizabeth, who became a writer and married Prince Antoine Bibesco, and Anthony, who became a leading film director.

Prior to her husband becoming prime minister, the family resided at a large mansion in Cavendish Square with fourteen servants, later making their weekend home at The Wharf in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, where artistic, literary, and political luminaries frequently gathered. H. H. Asquith served as British Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, during which time Margot drew significant public attention for her outspoken views, lavish lifestyle, and staunch opposition to women's suffrage, frequently clashing with suffragettes and political activists. Her outspokenness and lack of tact during World War I—such as visiting a German prisoner of war camp and publicly misinterpreting her veteran stepson Herbert's shell shock as drunkenness—created severe public outcries that many believed contributed to her husband's political downfall and forced resignation in December 1916, compounded by the tragic death of her eldest stepson Raymond in action in France earlier that year.

Margot's life was repeatedly intersected by intense controversies surrounding sexuality and high society. In 1918, she was publicly dragged into the obscene libel trial of right-wing MP Noel Pemberton Billing, who alleged that the nation's war effort was undermined by homosexuality and claimed her name appeared in a supposed Berlin Black Book of sexual perverts belonging to a secret society called the Unseen Hand, forcing her to hire legal representation to protect her interests. Furthermore, her life held deep LGBTQ links through her decades-long, intimate friendship with dancer and choreographer Maud Allan, whose reputation was compromised by rumors that Margot was part of a lesbian clique. From 1910 onwards for twenty years, Margot financially supported Maud Allan by paying for her apartment overlooking Regent Park—where Allan later lived with her secretary and lover Verna Aldrich—and the closeness of this relationship was brought into the courtroom atmosphere to publicly call Allan's morality into question.

Following the war, the Cavendish Square mansion was sold in 1920, and the couple moved to 44 Bedford Square. In 1925, she became the Countess of Oxford and Asquith when her husband was granted a peerage. Following her husband's death in 1928, she faced severe financial debt, having to sell her jewelry and rely on book sales, interior decorating, cigarette advertising, and numerous unredeemed I.O.U.s to maintain her lifestyle. She published a prolific series of memoirs and books beginning in 1920 with An Autobiography, which famously provoked Dorothy Parker's sharp quip that the affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith would live as one of the prettiest love stories in literature, as well as Barry Pain's satirical parody Marge Askinforit. Her later years were marked by deep personal sorrow, including the tragic isolation and subsequent death of her daughter Elizabeth from pneumonia in Romania in April 1945. Brokenhearted, Margot Asquith died just months later from pneumonia on July 28, 1945, at 14 Kensington Square in London, and was buried at All Saints Churchyard in Sutton Courtenay.


by Adolph de Meyer

References:


A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500
by Rebecca Jennings
Capri: Island of Pleasure Hardcover – January 1, 1987
by James Money
Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World Paperback – November 21, 2017
by Gregory Woods

Other references:

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