Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly

Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly
Born	13 November 1913
Died	11 February 2001
Nationality	British

Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, OBE, (née Llewellyn) (13 November 1913 – 11 February 2001), was the British author of To War With Whitaker: The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939–1945.

Hermione Llewellyn was born in Postlip, Gloucestershire into a wealthy family of Welsh origin. She had an older brother, Griffith Owen (1912–1933), and two sisters, Cynthia (born 1916) and Daphne (born 1922); "I started life as a disappointment — because I wasn't a boy", she recalled. "I continued being a disappointment — because I was ugly. Instead of minding, I determined to ride better, run faster, be funnier and give more generous presents than the rest of the family." Their father, Griffith Robert Poyntz Llewellyn, was dashing, popular and extravagant; his lack of caution was to have disastrous consequences, and he lost the family fortune on horses and houses when Hermione was thirteen. "We became poor very quickly", she reported. Their mother, Emily Constance (née Elwes), became mentally ill during Hermione's childhood and was diagnosed with manic-depression. The family accompanied her to Switzerland for treatment. There was further family tragedy with Owen's death in an air crash.

She completed her education at Southover Manor School, in Sussex.

In 1930 and impoverished, a 17-year-old Hermione moved to London to look for a job. As she noted, she was "ill-prepared for life beyond the bounds of a country estate", and had no qualifications except "good English and good manners." It was the height of the Depression, and there were few available openings, but she managed to obtain a job selling gas appliances for the Gas Light and Coke Company. She had scarcely ever been in a kitchen, and had difficulty giving personal advice to customers. Nevertheless, she became a successful saleswoman and wrote that "people seemed to like it when I said: 'Always buy a gas cooker with a large oven, then you can commit suicide with your husband'". Hermione took a secretarial course and subsequently found employment in a War Office typing pool. She remained short of money, and though invited to balls and for weekends at country houses, she had to decline, as she could not afford to buy the necessary clothes. In 1937, Hermione went to Australia as secretary to Lord Wakehurst who had been appointed as Governor of New South Wales. On a visit to Canberra, she met Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly, who was aide-de-camp to the Australian Governor-General. The day she returned to England, she found Ranfurly seated on the sofa in her London flat, reading the Sporting Life; the two immediately became engaged, and were married on 17 January 1939.

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