Lina Waterfield

Caroline Lucie 'Lina' Waterfield OBE (16 August 1874 – 27 November 1964) was an English author and Italian correspondent for The Observer and The Sunday Times, who founded the British Institute of Florence.

Lina Duff Gordon was the only child of Maurice Duff Gordon and his wife Fanny. She was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris; in 1884 her father inherited and moved the family to Fyvie Castle in Scotland, but he subsequently went to live with a mistress, whom he later married, and Lina was sent to a Catholic convent school in Brighton. Her mother asked Janet Ross, Maurice's sister, to pay for Lina to attend a convent school in Paris, and since she had terminal cancer, arranged for Ross and her husband Henry to adopt her; she died early in 1890, and after Lina wrote that she was being pressured to become a nun, in December she moved into the Rosses' residence, Poggio Gherardo () in Settignano near Florence. Her father gave permission for her adoption early in 1891, and she spent the rest of her childhood there, finishing her education with friends of her aunt's such as the artist Carlo Orsi and Guido Biagi, the head of the Laurentian Library.

While living with her aunt, she developed a close friendship with Margaret 'Madge' Symonds, a daughter of John Addington Symonds, with whom she wrote her first book, on Perugia on a commission from J. M. Dent. She later also became friendly with and took art tours with Bernard Berenson and his mistress, later wife, Mary Smith. In 1897 on a visit to England she met the painter Aubrey Waterfield, whom she married in London on 1 July 1902 despite her aunt's objections; her adoptive father, Henry Ross, died 18 days later.

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