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Lucy, Lady Houston was a well-known and widely loathed figure in 1930s Britain. She was one of England’s richest women, the publisher of the Saturday Review, a financial supporter of British aviation, and also an admirer Mussolini who likewise approved of Hitler. Adventuress: The Life and Loves of Lucy, Lady Houston by Teresa Crompton provides an interesting account of Houston’s controversial life and career that saw her support the Mount Everest Flight Expedition while later also seeking to encourage Edward VIII to become a British dictator.
Crompton includes Lady Houston’s occasional connections with Winston Churchill and recounts his role in the strange story of her payment of death duties. In April 1926, Houston’s husband Robert died and left her a fortune of £6-£7 million, the equivalent of £342-£349 million today. As the couple had been residing at the time on Jersey, Houston’s inheritance was not liable for death duties. A controversy thus arose over the issue. The Times labeled Robert Houston the “artful tax dodger” and called for the Treasury to find a loophole, leaving Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, to assure the House of Commons that all “legally due” death duties on the Houston estate would be secured. As the affair became a major news story and dragged on, Houston wearied of it and offered to pay her share of the death duties as “a free gift” to the country. She, however, insisted on dealing only with Churchill on the matter. On October 29, 1927, Lucy and her advisors met with Churchill and Lord Hailsham, the Attorney General, for an hour-long private meeting at the Treasury. Over cups of tea, they negotiated a payment of the sum of £1.5 million. Twelve days later, Houston returned to the building to personally give Churchill the check and enjoy more cups of tea.
Crompton is a historian and author who has received a PhD from Sheffield Hallam University.