Masterman, Lucy, 1884-1977

Lucy Blanche Masterman (nee Lyttelton) was born in 1884, the daughter of General Sir Neville Lyttelton, and the niece and godchild of Lucy Caroline Frederick Cavendish, and great-niece of William Ewart Gladstone. In 1908 she married Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman (1874-1927), politician. They had three children: Margaret Mary (1910-1986), who became a Founding Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Neville Charles (b 1912), and Dorothy Hilda (1914-1981). Lucy Masterman took a keen interest in poverty and became the Chairwoman of the Women's Liberal Federation of the Battersea Housing Association, and a Tribunal Representative of the Cambridge Refugee Committee in the Second World War. She was the author of several books, including Poems (1913), C.F.G. Masterman; a biography (1939), and London from the Bustop; a guide for the impecunious traveller (1951), and she edited the diaries of Mary Drew, daughter of W.E. Gladstone, Mary Gladstone (Mrs Drew): Her Diaries and Letters (1930). She died in 1977.

From the guide to the Papers of Lucy Masterman, 1930-1979, (University of Cambridge, Lucy Cavendish College)