Lady Joan Legge 1885--1939 -- Valley of Flowers

     IN LOVING MEMORY

                    OF

  JOAN MARGARET LEGGE

        FEB 21ST 1885

       JULY 4TH 1939

                    *

"I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES

      UNTO THE HILLS

   FROM WHENCE COMETH

             MY HELP"

                    **

The broken original stone
was replaced by Infinity Outdoor

    Explorers, Pune

Thanks to Brian Fernandez who visited the Valley
of  Flowers in 2017 and Susan Penn-Berkeley Brooks 
who would have spent considerable time searching
British newspaper archives for coverage of
the tragic death of Lady Joan. 

     

                   ***

It is said that a year after Joan's death her

sister had the memorial built at the spot where

she had been buried. The original stone has been

placed on top when the grave was repaired.

FUNERAL OF LADY JOAN LEGGE 

------------

IN “VALLEY OF FLOWERS”

----------------

TRAGIC BOTANICAL EXPEDITION

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Lady Joan Legge, daughter of the sixth Earl of Dartmouth and sister of the present Earl, who died on Tuesday as the result of an accident, has been buried in the “Valley of Flowers,”  16 miles* from Badrinath, India.

It was there that the accident occurred, Lady Joan falling from a hillside while she was pickinig flowers.

She was collecting specimens for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew at the time. – Reuter.

LOSS TO COUNTRY

As already reported in the Sentinel, Lady Joan Legge, who was 54, had been on holiday in India for some months.

For the greater part of her life, Lady Joan had resided in Staffordshire, and had contributed much to the maintenance of her family's traditional interest and activity in social welfare. She gave her practical support to varied organisations in the country to this end, prominent among them being the Boys Scout movement.Scout movement she had held with distinction the office of Acting County Commissioner and Honorary County Secretary.

Lady Joan had given her time and energy to many other forms of social and philanthropic work, and was keenly interested in agriculture. (*Today know to be more like 28 miles)

The Birmingham Mail, Saturday July 15, 1939

The tragic end of Lady Joan Legge in India while on holiday, has caused great regret throughout Staffordshire because of its circumstances no less than the fact.

Lady Joan was proceeded to the Himalayas with native guides on a six months' holiday** after a rather severe illness last Christmas, and, though full details are not yet forthcoming, it appears that she was killed as the result of a fall from a hillside near Badrinath, in the Bhyundar Valley...

The district where Lady Joan was a scout, a scout master, and had acted as district commissioner; and the late Lord Dartmouth was a girl guide. When Lady Baden Powell, wife of Lt. Gen Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting and Girl Guides movement, was on a visit for a guide rally some years ago, Lord Dartmouth asked if he could not be enrolled, and he was then and there admitted.
Evening Chronicle, Newcastle Friday July 7, 1939
TRAGEDY OF DURHAM POOR'S "LADY BOUNTIFUL" -- Death After Accident In India
THE POOR of Durham City have lost a real "Lady Bountiful" by the death, as a result of an accident in the Bhyundur Valley, India, of Lady Joan Margaret Legge, youngest daughter of the sixth Earl of Dartmouth and a sister of the present peer.
Despite her frail constitution she went to Durham and gave practical help and sympathetic interest to poor families in St. Nicholas's parish.
She was forced by ill-health to give up the work and took her first holiday in 10 years, going to India against the advice of some of her friends.
As plain "Joan Legge" she wrote offering her help to the Vicar of St. Nicholas's (the Rev. F. H. Pickering) of whose work among the poor and unemployed she had read. It was not until later that Mr. Pickering learned that she was a peer's daughter.
 VICAR'S TRIBUTE
The Vicar of St. Nicholas's was distressed when an "Evening Chronicle" representative told him of Lady Joan's death.
"The news is almost incredible," he said, "Besides being one of England's greatest ladies, she was a magnificent Christian, seeking always to help and not to be helped. She had an understanding, kindly disposition and that quality of patience towards others that would never abandon hope for them and a generosity that was prodigious. The poor of St. Nicholas's parish have lost one of their greatest friends.
Lady Joan nursed her sick father for two or three years. As a result she herself had a serious illness, and while convalescing in the South of England she read of the work of the Vicar of St. Nicholas's.
BECAME ILL IN DURHAM
At Easter, last year, she came to Durham and immediately won the affection of all Mr. Pickering's parishioners, but after working for two months, she became ill with pneumonia.
She came back again after three months' rest, but the Vicar then saw she was not strong enough to stand the strain of her work and the rigours of climate, and told her to.
Lady Joan then went for an Indian holiday.
She was born in 1885 and was a Staffordshire magistrate. Her home was at Coven Heath, Wolverhampton

*Another newspaper report mentioned that Lady Joan has spent some months in India, recouperating from her illness before proceeding to the Valley of Flowers. It is known today that the Valley only opens towards the end of June. The Valley of Flowers was discovered by Frank Sydney Smythe (1900--1949, an English mountaineer,
author, photographer and botanist in 1931 while on an expedition and written about in a novel of the same name. The name has remained and is a popular destination for trekkers.)

The original stone that is placed on top

Brian Fernandez, a friend of mine,
 is a retired English
teacher who lives in Devlali,
Maharashtra