Dorothy Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington

Dorothy Violet Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, styled Lady Gerald Wellesley between 1914 and 1943, was an English author, poet, literary editor and socialite. As Dorothy Wellesley, the name she took after her marriage to Lord Gerald Wellesley, she was the author of more than ten books, mostly of poetry, but including also Sir George Goldie, Founder of Nigeria (1934), and Far Have I Travelled (1952). She was editor for Hogarth Press of the Hogarth Living Poets series. She also edited The Annual in 1929. According to W. B. Yeats, Wellesley was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century - see his Introduction to the Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892–1935. "Within two minutes of our first meeting at my house he said: ‘You must sacrifice everything and everyone to your poetry'". Yeats discovered her poetry while researching the Oxford Book of Modern Verse and said "My eyes filled with tears. I read in excitement that was more delightful because it showed that I had not lost my understanding of poetry." Only later did he find who she was and what was her station in life.