Former wife of 6th Duke of Manchester, and later wife of Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood; daughter of Conway Richard Dobbs
Her second husband Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood was Secretary to the Post Office from 1880 to 1893 and nicknamed ‘Beauty’ because of his good looks. Blackwood is quoted stating the following about Wood Lodge:
"From Wimbledon, on 29th June, 1859, we moved to Wood Lodge, Streatham, an old square red-brick house, looking over Tooting Common towards the setting sun, and surrounded by about seven or eight acres of old-fashioned garden and paddock."
Until February, 1868, Wood Lodge continued to be his home; and perhaps in the whole of his life, there were no happier years than these. " Ah, there can never be another Streatham," he would sometimes say.
In 1874 Sir Arthur founded the Trinity Presbyterian Church and the hall (Wellfield Centre formerly the mission hall), built by Blackwood in 1867 was handed over to them for their use as a Mission hall. (extraxts Brian Bloice)
Image ©National Portrait Gallery