Mary Gladstone Drew (1847–1927)

Mary Gladstone Drew was born in London, England, the fifth in the family of eight children of William Ewart Gladstone, the future Prime Minister, and his wife Catherine. The family split their time between London and Mrs. Gladstone's ancestral home at Hawarden Castle in Wales. Mary received only a "haphazard" education typical of the era for girls.
She was extremely interested in politics, however, and in 1880 was named one of her father's private secretaries. Five years later, she surprised her family by becoming engaged, at age 38, to Harry Drew, the curate of Hawarden, who was nine years her senior. The couple married at Westminster Abbey in 1886 and later had a daughter. In 1919, Mary published a biography of her mother, followed by the book Acton, Gladstone and Others (1924), a collection of essays and reviews. She was a keen diarist and letter writer, and kept copious notes of her father's meetings and conversations, along with her own observations of events. Some of her papers were published in 1930 under the title Mary Gladstone (Mrs. Drew), Her Diaries and Letters, by Lucy Masterman. The papers continue to be a valuable source for 20th- and 21st-century historians and biographers.