Sir Alexander Duff Gordon

Eighteen-year-old Lucie Austin married Sir Alexander Duff Gordon at Kensington Old Church.

Her husband was given the post of Commissioner of Inland Revenue in 1856.

With few exceptions, LDG was now deprived of her family's company. Her household was initially comprised of her English maid, Sally , and Omar (the two later had a child together and were married in...

In the mid-1840s CN acquired some new friends: biographer John Gibson Lockhart , author Alexander William Kinglake , rising young statesman Sidney Herbert (direct descendant of the Countess of Pembroke ), and the intellectual translator...

Living once again with her parents in London, Lucie Austin began an active social life. She was introduced to Queen Victoria , met and became friendly with Caroline Norton , and was introduced to...

Her pension was left in trust to her daughter's husband Sir Alexander Duff Gordon , and Henry Reeve .

LDG 's own representations of Egyptian and South African people, however, have today become a subject of critical debate over their alleged objectification of their subjects. While she seeks to understand and enter into the...

In 1848 LDG and her husband collaborated on a translation, Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg and History of Prussia, from the German of Leopold von Ranke , which was published the following year.

South Africa was the first place where LDG lived on doctor's orders, apart from her family, in hopes that the warm, dry climate would help relieve her from tuberculosis. She began writing letters to her...

Shortly before her death LDG expressed her regret that she had not been able to publish all that she had seen and heard during her time in Egypt. She wrote to her husband ,...

Though LDG was a keen letter-writer during her youth, her first serious literary effort, a translation from German, was done in an attempt to support her family (who until then survived on the income, meagre...

In September 1854, LDG and her husband travelled to Paris for a holiday. While there Lucie was reunited with the dying Heinrich Heine , who gave her the copyright to all of his works and...

Despite fierce weather during the trip her spirits were indomitable. She wrote to her husband while on the voyage, Since I wrote last, we got into the south-west monsoon for one day, and I sat...