Who was Idina Sackville? Book Review of The Bolter

Oct 10, 2010
Ellie Stevenson

The Bolter by Frances Osborne: dust jacket - Photo: E Stevenson, jacket design: J Richards

The Bolter by Frances Osborne is an excellent read about daring Idina Sackville, the Happy Valley set and the social history of the 1920s and 1930s.

Outrageous, scandalous? That was Idina Sackville. And all for having more than one husband – five, altogether, though not at the same time. Divorce wasn’t acceptable in the 1920s and 1930s, but affairs were, providing those involved were discreet. Idina wasn’t. She fell in and out of love and was happy to admit it. But the love of her life was Euan Wallace, her first husband. His photo was by her bed when she died.

Vita Sackville-West and (the first) Thomas Brassey

(Myra) Idina Sackville had an excellent pedigree. Her father, Gilbert, was the 8th Earl De La Warr, her cousin, the writer Vita Sackville-West. Her mother, Muriel, was heir to the Brassey fortune, proving the truth of the old Yorkshire adage, ‘where there’s muck [or in this case railways] there’s brass’.

Brass, of course, is another word for cheek. Idina had plenty of that.

Divorce in History

Idina’s story comes to life in Osborne’s book, The Bolter. It might be history but it reads like a novel with its twists and turns. Where Idina went wrong, Osborne argues, was not in having five men, but in daring to marry them. Affairs didn’t threaten the social fabric, divorce did. In the 1920s, divorce happened but it just wasn’t ‘done’. Idina didn’t care, but she paid the price.

Euan Wallace

Idina married Euan (David Euan Wallace) in 1913, when she was just 20. The war took its toll on their relationship, as did her illness. Euan began flirting with other women, maybe a little more than flirting. The women were young – and single, which made them dangerous. One of these was Dickie (Morvyth) Ward, the Earl of Dudley’s daughter. Dickie was very fond of Euan, she took him to Witley Court, her father’s house in the country. But Euan preferred Barbie (Idina’s sister’s friend), who also went with them. After the divorce, Euan married Barbie and they stayed together for the rest of his life. She gave him three sons.

Idina Sackville: Marriage and motherhood

Idina also gave Euan sons. Arguably, she wasn’t suited to full-time motherhood, but when the marriage failed she was forced to choose: stay in the marriage and give up her lover (later her second husband) or leave and give up the children too. This was a hard choice. It’s unlikely Euan would have been faithful if she’d stayed, and if she went, she was agreeing not just to Euan bringing them up, but to not seeing them. It was very much a double standard.

In the end she went.

Josslyn Hay and Happy Valley

Idina moved to Kenya with Charles Gordon, but marriage number two soon failed. In 1923 she married Joss Hay (Josslyn Victor Hay, later the 22nd Earl of Erroll). This was perhaps her most famous relationship. Idina became a key player in the Happy Valley set, a group of expats with fast reputations.

It would be easy to judge Idina as fun-loving and frivolous. But although she played hard (entertaining guests from her bathtub and hosting late night dinners where the guests wore pyjamas) she worked hard too, managing several farms in Kenya over her lifetime. For Idina, farming was a serious business.

Happy Valley murder

Josslyn Hay went the same way as her other husbands, but they stayed in touch and when Joss was murdered in 1941 she must have been horrified. According to Paul Spicer in his book, The Temptress, Idina told her neighbour, Edward Rodwell, that she knew who killed Joss, and promised to divulge it before she died. Regrettably, she didn’t. Jock (Henry John) Delves Broughton, whose wife Diana, was having an affair with Hay, was tried for the crime but not convicted. Spicer’s book suggests someone else with a motive – Alice de Janzé, a good friend of Idina’s, and frequently Hay’s lover.

Idina Sackville and the 1940s

1941 was a bad year for Idina. Within weeks of Joss’s death, her first husband Euan died of cancer. Later that year Alice de Janzé killed herself. Worst of all, by the end of the war, both of Idina’s sons were dead.

There’s a postscript to this story. The Bolter’s author, Frances Osborne, is Idina Sackville’s great-granddaughter, something that was kept from her for many years, because of Idina’s reputation. Now the story’s been brought to the light, and so has Idina.

Idina Sackville was a woman ahead of her time. She wore trousers, she took lovers, she made mistakes – and she paid for them. But at least she lived, had adventures and loved.

About Frances Osborne

Frances Osborne has written two biographies, The Bolter (2008) and the earlier Lilla’s Feast (2006) which is also the story of a great-grandmother. Osborne discovered what historians dream of, secret caches of letters, diaries and photos. From these resources she drew two marvellous stories. Her work in progress is a historical novel. She is married with two children; her husband, George Osborne, is Chancellor of the Exchequer.