Mrs Charles Hunter 1857 – 1933

A great number of attached friends will learn with sorrow that Mary, widow of Charles Edward Hunter, late of Hill Hall, Epping, died on Wednesday at her residence in Ashley Gardens, Westminster.

Mrs. Charles Hunter was one of hearty and turbulent family of six girs and two boys, the offspring of General J. H. Smyth, a fine old soldier of the Indian Army, and a mother who mingles a little French blood and a French education with her English heritage. One of her sisters is Dame Ethel Smyth, the composer, and Brigadier General R. N. Smyth, D.S.O., is her brother.
She was a lady of remarkable beauty and a famous hostess who possessed in a supreme degree the art of hospitality.

She was specialy a friend of artists, and knew well the most distinguished of them among her contempories, who delighted in her parties at Hill Hall. But her immense circle was not limited to any one type or profession, and she was indeed a great social figure who, in the common phrase, knew and was known by “everyone.”
Her special attraction may be hard to define, but it is certain that people of the most varied callings and natures found irresistible. Her wide interest in literature and the arts, as well as in current affairs, was not peculiar to herself but there was something in the breadth of her sympathies and her personal charm which seemed to set her apart among Englishwomen of her generation. She was often painted, and Rodin made a wonderful bust of her. In memory of her great friend Sargent she presented to the Tate Gallery, through the National Art Collection Fund, his portrait of the three Misses Hunter, painted in 1902.

The funeral will be at St. Michael’s, Theydon Mount, on Monday at 2 o’ clock. There will be a memorial service at St. Mark’s, North Audley Street, at 2.15 the same day.