| Mrs George de Horne Vaizey | |
| Birth Name: | Jessie Bell |
| Occupation: | Writer |
Jessie Bell (1857 – 23 January 1917), later Jessie Mansergh, was an English writer born in Liverpool, who wrote under her married name Mrs George de Horne Vaizey.
De Horne Vaizey was the daughter of Scottish insurance broker David Bell, and his wife, Elizabeth Morris Barton, and had six siblings, four brothers and two sisters. She married Henry Mansergh, a cotton broker, in 1883.[1] They had a daughter, Gwyneth Alice, in 1886.[2] She met her second husband, George de Horne Vaizey, on a Mediterranean cruise, which she won in a short story competition.[3] They married in Liverpool on 19 March 1898.[4] Her son, named George after his father, also became a writer.[5]
As her biography at Athelstane Books notes, "She often used her own varied experiences in her books. She used situations from her early life in a large family, her first husband's addiction and death, and her own illnesses in her novels."[5] De Horne Vaizey's daughter Gwyneth, nicknamed Kit, was the inspiration for the character Kitty in her 1902 work A Houseful of Girls. The author mentions that Gwyneth really did share lessons with a family of five sisters, who "in many ways were like the book Rendells. Chrystabel is as like as I could make her and they all talk In that funny way, emphasising every second or third word."[6]
De Horne Vaizey was an invalid for many years before her death on 23 January 1917.[7] Her obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald mentions that she had been "an invalid, crippled and confined to her bed for years".[6]
De Horne Vaizey was quoted in Housekeeper magazine in 1909 on the differences between men and women, saying: "I'm convinced that men would be smaller minded still if they were in our place, so it's not as big as it seems. It's our life's work to do the small things, to save the small sums, and haggle over pennies, while men deal with the great affairs of life."[8]