Maud_Darwin

Martha Haskins, Lady Darwin known as Maud Darwin, was an American socialite and the wife of the English Cambridge University astronomer Sir George Darwin. She became Lady Darwin on her husband's knighthood in 1905; she was widowed in 1912. She died at Newnham Grange in 1947 and was given an obituary in The Times,which noted her campaigning for women police officers. She was cremated at Cambridge Crematorium on February 10, 1947; her husband is buried in Trumpington Extension Cemetery in Cambridge with their daughter Gwen (Raverat); also baby son Leonard Darwin. Her daughter Gwen's childhood memoir Period Piece contains Maud as a central maternal character, illustrated several times. It also describes her role as the wife of an Oxbridge don. Many of her letters were included in her aunt's biography. Her other daughter, Lady Margaret Keynes, also wrote a book containing many references to Maud, this being principally a book about her home, Newnham Grange and its inhabitants.A chapter in Frances Spalding's biography of Gwen Raverat also contains her life story.