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A wedding dress stored in a cupboard for more than a hundred years has come to light, rekindling memories of its owner and her long life of public service.
The beautiful white dress was discovered during the Covid lockdown of 2020, by Head Housekeeper Amanda Thacker and Zoe Benyon.
It has brought back to life the full story of the owner of the dress, Lady Violet Peek, who married Henry – known as Harry - Benyon just after the start of the First World War and travelled with him on active service to Egypt.
Violet, who came from Rousdon on the Devon-Dorset border, and Harry, the only son of Mr JH Benyon of Englefield, were engaged and married within weeks in the spring of 1915. Harry, who was serving with the Berkshire Yeomanry, was sent to Alexandria, where Violet was allowed to join him.
She worked in Egypt during the first part of the 1914-18 war for the Red Cross – a pattern of public service that was to be repeated right through her life. The couple returned to England when Harry was invalided home in 1917. When the war ended, and Harry was demobbed, the couple moved into Ufton Court on the Estate.
As well as modernising the house and enlarging the garden, Violet threw herself into voluntary work, becoming county director of Berkshire Red Cross, joining the committee of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and serving as an active member of the District Nursing Association. She was also chair of the Berkshire Blind Society, and a Berkshire County Councillor for almost 30 years.
The couple moved into Englefield House and in 1946 Harry Benyon was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire and later, in 1958, became a Baronet, in recognition of his service to the county. He died in 1959, aged 75, and Violet, who continued to live at Englefield, passed away in the spring of 1963. She was 77.
Englefield housekeeper Amanda said during the Covid lockdown of 2020 there was time to go through many of the stored clothes at Englefield House. Amanda said: “I found this bundle in a cupboard and Zoe immediately spotted what it was. She had already found a pair of shoes elsewhere that Violet had worn at her wedding, and we were so pleased to find the dress as well.”
Violet’s wedding dress needed careful handling after spending years locked away but Head Housekeeper Amanda, with the support of her team, is an expert in caring for fragile clothing and other material that has come under attack from moths.
She said: “In a big house you are not going to get rid of moths – but you have to try to keep on top of them. It’s a constant battle.” She said her plan of attack includes keeping chimneys clean - as they can harbour birds, which attract moths - vigorous hoovering and dusting, the use of environmentally-friendly moth sprays and freezing items of clothing that harbour the moths and eggs as they cannot survive in very low temperatures.