We have recently received a deposit of Lady Gladys Arnold Robertson (nee Ingalls) diaries. This lady swung between mother-hood, acting the ambassador’s wife role, and opening and maintaining a hospital in her hometown in Virginia, USA.

She lived a full life.

The first volume from 1900, is entitled in gold ‘My Trip Abroad’ – it is an indepth account of the young and single Miss G. Ingall’s travels in Europe March to June 1900 (sailing from New York and returning from Liverpool via Spain and Italy). The diarist married Lord Malcolm Arnold Robertson in March 1917. The travel journal contains postcards and keepsakes. The diaries are all initialled, leather-bound, locked, hardback volumes. Many have minor – severe water damage. The majority of the diary locks remain to be forced – they are strong. Significant dates which might be referred to in the diaries and which feature in the diarist’s biography include: the death of her second son in 1934, from leukaemia. Lady Robertson’s husband was an ambassador and during the mid-1920s was based in South America, during the mid-1930s Lord Robertson negotiated the Tangier treaty, the diaries feature lengthy descriptions of steamliner journeys, social engagements, social recreations, and meals/banquets/garden parties.