Cecil Woodham-Smith
Cecil Woodham-Smith was a Welsh-born author renowned for her historical biographies and studies, particularly focusing on significant figures and events from the 19th century. Among her most acclaimed works are a biography of Florence Nightingale, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and a critical examination of the Crimean War disaster known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. Born Blanche Fitzgerald in 1896, she had a diverse heritage linked to notable historical figures, including an Irish military officer and a leader of the 1798 Dublin Rebellion.
After a disrupted education, she graduated from St. Hilda's College at Oxford and began her writing career under the pseudonym Janet Gordon. Following her marriage in 1928 and raising two children, Woodham-Smith dedicated herself to historical research. Her later works included a critical analysis of the Irish potato famine, which garnered attention and accolades, including an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland. Recognized for her contributions to British historiography, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1960. Woodham-Smith passed away in 1977 while working on a biography of Queen Victoria, leaving behind a legacy of influential historical writing.
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Subject Terms
Cecil Woodham-Smith
Author
- Born: 1896
- Birthplace: Tenby, Wales
- Died: March 16, 1977
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Welsh-born author Cecil Woodham-Smith is best known for two books: an award-winning biography of Florence Nightingale and a study of the Crimean War disaster known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. She also wrote a notable study of the Irish potato famine and had completed one volume of a biography of Queen Victoria at the time of her death.
Woodham-Smith was born Blanche Fitzgerald in 1896, the daughter of an Irish military officer descended from Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a leader of the 1798 Dublin Rebellion. Her mother was a descendant of Sir Thomas Picton, who died at the Battle of Waterloo. Woodham- Smith attended the Royal School for Officer’s Daughters in Bath, but she was expelled for skipping school to visit the National Gallery of Art. She was sent to a French convent to complete her education and subsequently graduated second-class from St. Hilda’s College at Oxford in 1917. Years later, in 1967, she would be named an honorary fellow of that college in recognition of her accomplishments.
She married solicitor George Ivon Woodham-Smith in 1928. They had a close and happy marriage that lasted forty years and produced two children. Woodham-Smith waited until her children were through school to begin her historical research in earnest, but she did write potboiler novels using the pseudonym Janet Gordon while the children were young, practicing her writing skills and developing her sense for an engaging narrative.
When her biography of Florence Nightingale was published in 1950 after nine years of meticulous research, it immediately received critical acclaim from both scholars and popular readers, winning Woodham-Smith the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her 1953 book The Charge of the Light Brigade (also known as The Reason Why), telling the story of the Crimean War debacle, was equally well respected and became immensely popular. Woodham-Smith spent two years conducting research for this book and claimed she wrote it in one thirty-six-hour session, neither sleeping, eating, nor drinking while she was writing, but sleeping for two days once she finished. The popularity and reputation of both of these books only grew with time, and in 1960 Woodham-Smith was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to British historiography.
Her next book, The Great Hunger: Ireland, 1845-1849, did not appear for almost a decade. The work was scathingly critical of the English response to the Irish potato famine, and she received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland in 1964 shortly after its publication. She received similar recognition from the University of St. Andrews in 1965 and was given the A. C. Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 1969.
Woodham-Smith died in 1977, five years after the publication of the first volume of her biography of Queen Victoria and while working to complete the work. She was eighty years old.