Today's picture transports us back to 1902 when our trio of Edwardian beauties were well known figures in society. Leaning on the radiator is Mrs. Mary Cornwallis-West whose husband owned Newlands Manor near Lymington in the southern UK county of Hampshire. We are doing the lady an injustice by not sharing her full fabulous name - Mary Adelaide Virginia Thomasina Eupatoria Cornwallis-West and also the fact that, aged 16, she was mistress to the Prince of Wales ( later King Edward VII ). The affair was discovered and she was married to the twice older George Cornwallis-West.
Sitting in the car are her daughters - Daisy ( Princess Henry of Pless) and Constance who married the Duke of Westminster. The latter marriage was the result of Mary persuading The Prince of Wales to convince the Duke to marry her daughter.
George was well-known for his glamorous marriages, the first being to Lady Randolph Churchill whose son Winston expressed dismay at his new stepfather being just 16 days his senior. Apart from being an officer of the Scots Guards, George was also a director of the Brush Electrical Engineering Company and it is a 10 h.p. model shown in the photograph. This 1902 model was powered by a 2 cylinder Abeille engine with a 3 speed Sage gearbox and double chain drive to the rear wheels.
Clarence evidently inherited her mother's persuasive powers since the Duke of Westminster bought a 16 h.p. model with an 'especially comfortable body' and in 1903 he purchased a nine-seater Shooting Wagonette producing 30 bhp at 950 rpm. The War Office also chose a 10 h.p. Brush.
We wonder how many other men succumbed to these lovely ladies' charms and bought a Brush?
(Text & pictures Robin Batchelor)