Countess of Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers Jersey

Born Margaret Elizabeth Leigh on 29 October 1849, she was the eldest child of William Henry Leigh, 2nd Baron Leigh. In 1872 she married Victor Child Villiers, later the 7th Earl of Jersey, and became Countess of Jersey. She lived through a period of major social and political change and died on 22 May 1945 at the age of 95.

She is best known for public and charitable work. She was the founding president of the Victoria League from 1901 to 1914, a group created to strengthen ties across the British Empire. At the same time, she took a clear stand against women's suffrage, which makes her an especially interesting figure in the history of women's public life.

She also wrote widely, producing travel pieces, children's plays, verse, and hymns. That mix of activism, social leadership, and literary work gives her a place not just in aristocratic history, but in the wider cultural life of her era.