author

Lady Florence Mary Bootle-Wilbraham Cecil

1863–1944

An English aristocrat with a strong interest in religion and world affairs, she is best known as the co-author of Changing China, an early 20th-century account shaped by missionary concerns and rapid change in China. Her life also connected two prominent British families, the Earls of Lathom and the Cecils.

1 Audiobook

Changing China

Changing China

by William Gascoyne-Cecil, Lady Florence Mary Bootle-Wilbraham Cecil

About the author

Born in 1863, she was the daughter of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom. She later married Lord William Rupert Ernest Gascoyne-Cecil, who became Bishop of Exeter, and she was known as Lady Florence Cecil.

Her name is chiefly linked to Changing China, a book credited to Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil and assisted by Lady Florence Cecil. Published in the early 1910s, it reflects an English Christian and missionary view of China during a period of major political and social transformation.

The surviving records found here are brief, so many personal details about her life and work remain unclear. Still, the sources consistently place her between 1863 and 1944 and show her as a writer associated with religious and international subjects rather than as a prolific standalone author.