Rose Champion de Crespigny

Rose Champion de Crespigny was an English artist and author, who published many novels as Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny.

Career

Rose was the daughter of Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key and his wife, Lady Charlotte Lavinia. She was born 9 November 1859 in Kensington, and she was baptised 15 December 1859 at St John's, Notting Hill.
As an artist, her paintings tended toward landscape. Her writing, after early forays into genealogical and local history, soon settled into popular fiction. Her work was described in a contemporary review as having "a certain graceful facility". She was a leading member of the Ridley Art Club and the Lyceum Club in Piccadilly. She was honorary principal of the British College of Psychic Science and a spiritualist.

Personal life

Rose married Philip Augustus Champion de Crespigny, a Royal Navy officer and son of Sir Claude William Champion de Crespigny, 3rd Baronet, on 1 October 1878 in Westminster. They had four children, including Frederick Philip Champion de Crespigny, who inherited the baronetcy, as the 7th Baronet, the year before his death.

Selected publications

Key to the Roll of the Huguenots Settled in the United Kingdom
The Roll of the Highland Clans of Scotland
The New Forest; its traditions, inhabitants and customs
From Behind the Arras
The Mischief of a Glove
The Rose Brocade
The Grey Domino
The Spanish Prisoner
My Cousin Cynthia, and Others
The Coming of Aurora
The Valley of Achor
The Five of Spades
The Mark
Hester and I
Stories of To-day and Yesterday
The Moving Finger
The Shears of Atropos
The Villa on the Borderive Road
The Witness in the Wood
The Case of Mr. Fitzgordon
The Voice
The Mind of a Woman
The Valley of Orchids
Tangled Evidence, basis of film Tangled Evidence in 1934
The Missing Piece
The Dark Sea
Straws in the Wind
The Eye of Nemesis
Glimpses into Infinity
A Case for the C.I.D.
The Riddle of the Emeralds
''This World and Beyond''