Florence Henniker
Florence Henniker, born Florence Hungerford Milnes in 1855, was a British author and aristocrat with notable ties to literary figures of the late 19th century. The daughter of Richard Monckton Milnes, the first Lord Houghton, and Annabella Hungerford Milnes, she grew up in a privileged environment at Fryston Hall in Yorkshire. Named after Florence Nightingale, her father’s friend, Henniker was exposed to esteemed writers, including William Makepeace Thackeray and Algernon Charles Swinburne, during her formative years.
She married Arthur Henniker-Major in 1882, a union primarily motivated by social standing rather than romance. With her husband frequently away due to military service, Henniker turned to writing, using her experiences as a military wife to inspire her literary works. While she authored several novels, her short stories gained greater popularity, particularly her 1896 collection "In Scarlet and Grey," co-written with her mentor, Thomas Hardy. Her stories often explore themes of military life and human relationships, characterized by a distinct sense of pessimism and keen insight into the complexities of societal expectations and personal sacrifice.
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Florence Henniker
Writer
- Born: December 7, 1855
- Birthplace: England
- Died: April 4, 1923
Biography
Florence Hungerford Milnes was born in 1855 to Richard Monckton Milnes, who was to become the first Lord Houghton, and Annabella Hungerford Milnes, daughter of Baron Crewe. She was named after Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, whom her father had courted. A British aristocrat, she grew up at the Yorkshire family estate, Fryston Hall, where she was privileged to have had contact with some of the most famous writers of the late nineteenth century, including William Makepeace Thackeray and Algernon Charles Swinburne. In 1872, her father took her to Paris to visit President Louis-Adolphe Thiers. She married Arthur Henniker-Major in 1882, for social position rather than love. During her husband’s many long military absences, Henniker began a literary career. Her life as a military wife provided material for her novels. Although she wrote novels, her short stories were more popular.
Henniker shared a friendship for thirty years with the famous British novelist Thomas Hardy and she recognized him as her literary mentor. Her In Scarlet and Grey: Stories of Soldiers and Others (1896), written in collaboration with Hardy, is considered Henniker’s most successful short-story collection. In “The Heart of the Color Sergeant,” Kitty Malone falls in love with the sergeant as he is about to leave for Egypt. When her fiancé, a captain, finds out, he demotes the sergeant, who is forced to leave Kitty. In “Bad and Worthless,” an outcast drunken soldier saves the life of a boy, dies, and inspires the parents to take greater care of their son. In the satiric “A Successful Intrusion,” a group of English pilgrims traveling to the Roman graves of famous British Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley find themselves tricked and robbed by the charming Villiers Oswald. Henniker’s stories, which are noted for their pessimism, are regarded for their insight into military matters.