Pauline Astor papers

1927-1958

Pauline Astor was born in 1888 to Mary Dahlgren (neé Paul) and William Waldorf Astor, the grandson of American financier, John Jacob Astor. In 1891, after becoming increasingly upset with the direction he perceived the United States was heading, Astor moved his family from New York to London. Two years later he purchased the manor known as Cliveden from the Duke of Westminster. Pauline became mistress of the estate when her mother died in 1894.

After several rumored betrothals, Pauline Aster married Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert H. Spender-Clay on October 20, 1904 at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster. Spender-Clay's father was the largest share holder of the Bass Brewing Company. Herbert "Bertie" Spender-Clay himself had served in the second Boer War before returning to his family home in order to become a gentleman farmer. The newlyweds resided at Ford Manor in Surrey where entertaining friends and increasing the beauty of the surrounding gardens was of the utmost importance. During World War I, the house was used as a convalescent home and, during World War II, as a nursery school for London evacuees and later as a hospital for Canadian troops.

Herbert Spender-Clay died in 1937 from complications arising from pneumonia. Soon after his death, Pauline moved into a second Ford Manor. She died in 1970. They had two daughters.

John Singer Sargent painted Pauline Astor during 1898 and 1899. The painting, entitled Portrait of Pauline Astor, resides within the William Morris Collection.