Elinor Mordaunt

Evelyn May Clowes, known by the pseudonym Elinor Mordaunt (7 May 1872 – 25 June 1942), was an English author, writer and traveller born in Nottinghamshire, England. Her travels included Mauritius and Australia; she undertook a wide variety of employment.

Early life

Mordaunt was the fifth child of St. John Legh Clowes, a South African writer, and the Honourable Elizabeth Caroline Bingham. She was born in the village of Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, and christened as Evelyn May Clowes. Her maternal grandfather was the Irish nobleman Denis Arthur Bingham, 3rd Baron Clanmorris.

Growing up in genteel circumstances, her early childhood was spent at Charlton Down House near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and her teenage years near Heythrop in the Cotswolds. She was educated at home by governesses, excelling at German, Latin, Greek, shorthand writing, landscape painting, and fabric and wallpaper design.

Australia

In 1897 she went to Mauritius, and in 1898 married Maurice Wilhemn Wiehe, who owned a sugar plantation. She gave birth to two stillborn children. She arrived on 10 June 1902 and lived at Melbourne for about eight years. Her son, Godfrey Weston Wiehe, was born 9 March 1903.

Second marriage

On 27 January 1933, she was married to Robert Rawnsley Bowles.

Death

She died on 25 June 1942 at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.

Literary reputation

Mordaunt was revealed as the author of a pseudonymous novel called Gin and Bitters (1931), referencing the debate in the London publishing world over whether Somerset Maugham had based the character of Alroy Kear in Cakes and Ale on Hugh Walpole. The book was removed from sale in the UK, apparently under pressure from Maugham.