Mary Wemyss

Mary Constance Elphinstone Wemyss was an English novelist who published her work under the name of Mrs George Wemyss.

Early life

Wemyss was born in Kensington, Middlesex, one of the thirteen children of Captain Charles Henry Augustus Lutyens, a soldier and painter, and Mary Theresa Gallwey from Killarney, Ireland. She was baptised as Mary Constance Elphinstone on 20 February 1868 at St Paul's, Onslow Square, Kensington. The Lutyens family was then living at 16, Onslow Square.
The older sister of Edwin Lutyens, she grew up in Thursley, Surrey.

Life and career

On 6 March 1890, at Holy Trinity Brompton, Knightsbridge, aged 22 and still living at 16, Onslow Square, Mary Lutyens married George Wemyss, a captain in the West Yorkshire Regiment, who gave his father's name as Frederick Augustus von Wachsmann. The Rev. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Vicar of St Paul's, Onslow Square, officiated. George Wemyss had been born in New Zealand.
Wemyss published at least twelve novels between 1910 and 1919. Already by 1914 her work was the subject of interest in the United States.
Reviewing her Oranges and Lemons in 1919, Punch noted
The New York Times also reviewed Oranges and Lemons, summing it up as “A CONVENTIONAL and mildly — very mildly — amusing little story”.
In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, George and Mary Wemyss were living together near Stroud, Gloucestershire. He was a retired Major, while she was noted as having private means. In their household were a butler, a cook, a lady's maid, and two housemaids. George Wemyss died at home at Atcombe Court, Woodchester, Gloucestershire, in March 1944, leaving an estate valued at £22,920. His widow survived him until 15 March 1951, dying at 16, Albert Hall Mansions, Kensington. Probate on her estate valued it at £54,699.