ABSTRACT
The news of Christabel’s death was greeted with much sorrow by her friends in America, many of whom wrote to Grace Roe. ‘[T]he valiant lady, has certainly left her footprints not only in “the sands of time”, but in the hearts of her many friends who loved & appreciated her true goodness’, commented Ivy de Verley, a portrait painter. 1 But it was the letters sent to Grace from former suffragettes who had been close to Christabel in her suffrage days that were particularly poignant. ‘I’ve just this minute heard on the radio this terribly sad news that our darling Christabel has gone’, wrote Kathleen Pepper. ‘I feel so shocked & stunned that I can’t write any more now . . . Mrs. Stride [Rangeley] & I . . . feel – as you will be – heartbroken – I just cannot realize it.’ 2 For Rangeley, who was sixteen years old when she first met Christabel, had helped to look after Betty/Aurea as a young girl and been close to Christabel all her life, her deceased close friend was ‘as perfect as any human being could be . . . She always asked us to destroy her letters, so I did, but nothing can ever destroy the memories’. Shattered by the dreadful news, Rangeley confided to Grace, ‘No words can describe her as we knew her. I truly believe that you & I loved her more than anyone else has ever done.’ 3
