Background
A daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she married into another aristocratic family, the Cavendishes, in 1864. Lucy Cavendish was born at the Lyttelton family house, Hagley Hall, Worcestershire on 5 September 1841.
A daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she married into another aristocratic family, the Cavendishes, in 1864. Lucy Cavendish was born at the Lyttelton family house, Hagley Hall, Worcestershire on 5 September 1841.
In 1863 she was appointed a Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria, whom she attended until marrying the following year.
After his death she devoted much of her time to the cause of girls" and women"s education, for which she was honoured in her lifetime with an honorary degree, and posthumously when, in 1965, Cambridge University named its first post-graduate college for women after her. They had no children. Cavendish was elected to Parliament in 1865 and was assassinated by Irish nationalists in the Phoenix Park Murders on 6 May 1882, the day on which he took the oath of office of Chief Secretary for Ireland.
Though devastated by the assassination, on the day before the ringleader was hanged she sent him the small gold crucifix she had long worn, as a token of her forgiveness.
After Cavendish"s death, Lucy Cavendish was active in the sphere of women"s education. She was of President of the Yorkshire Ladies Council of Education from 1883 to 1912.
She declined the offer of the post of Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge in 1884. On 6 October 1904 she received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the formal inauguration of the University of Leeds for "notable service to the cause of education".
Lucy Cavendish died at her home, The Glebe, Penshurst, Tonbridge, on 22 April 1925. aged 83.
She was buried in her husband"s grave in the churchyard at Street Peter"s Church, Edensor, near Chatsworth. Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge was named in her honour in 1965. She was the great-aunt of one of its founders, Margaret Braithwaite.
She was a member of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education and was a founding member of the Council of the Girls" Public Day School Company, which had been founded by her father.