Troubridge, Una Vincenzo

WRITER, SINGER, SCULPTOR (ENGLAND)
BORN 8 Mar 1887, London - DIED 24 Sep 1963, Roma, Lazio
BIRTH NAME Taylor, Margot Elena Gertrude
CAUSE OF DEATH cancer
GRAVE LOCATION Roma, Lazio: Cimitero Monumentale del Verano, Piazzale del Verano, 1 (Reparto Stranieri, riquadro 38)

Una Taylor was the daughter of Harry Ashworth Taylor, an official in the foreign office. Her father was the son of the dramatist and poet Henry Taylor (1800-1886). Una's mother was Minna Gordon Handcock. Una was her nickname and she chose Vincenzo herself after relatives in Florence. She grew up at Montpelier Square in London. After she studied at the Royal College of Art she started a sculpture studio. After her father's death in 1907 her financial means were limited.

In 1908 she married admiral Ernest Troubridge who was 25 years her senior. In 1910 they had a daughter, Andrea. Troubridge infected her with a venereal disease that troubled her for many years. She had enough of men and in 1915 she started a relationship with the author Radclyffe Hall that lasted until Hall's death in 1943. Before she lived with Una, Radclyffe Hall had been the lover of Una's aunt, the singer Mabel Batten.

In 1919 Troubridge was knighted and she became Lady Troubridge, although they were already legally seperated at the time. Ernest Troubridge died in 1926 in Biarritz and was buried there. Although they had lived apart she and Andrea attended his memorial service at Westminster Cathedral. Otherwise she took little notice of Andrea. She worked hard to promote Hall's work and she translated works from Sidonie Colette into English. Troubridge.

She and Radclyffe Hall had contacts with notorious lesbians like Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks. During the last ten years of her life Hall had another lover, Evguenia Souline. Troubridge did everything she could to keep Hall away from Souline but Hall kept pursuing her.

Radclyffe Hall was a chain smoker and she died of rectal cancer in 1943. She had originally provided Souline with an income in her will, but she had changed it and left everything including her copyrights to Una. Una inherited her fortune over 110.000 pounds. In the new will she was asked to provide for Souline in a way she considered right and she gave Souline only a very small allowance. In her book "The Life and Death of Radclyffe Hall" she made Souline less important to Radclyffe Hall than she really was.

In 1946 Troubridge moved to Italy, where she had lived before with Hall. She had been a long time supporter of the singer Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and towards the end of her life she was a close friend of him and his second wife, the singer Virginia Zeani.

She died in Rome in 1963. Nicola Rossi-Lemini arranged for her funeral at the Verano cemetery in Rome. He stated that she had never said that she wanted to be buried in England and that she had said 'you could throw me into the sea'. During a visit to the Verano Cemetery after his mother's death she had actually pointed out the spot and said she wouldn't mind being buried there. Later in the safe of her bank in Minehead, England, instructions were found that she wanted to be buried with Radclyffe Hall at Highgate in London but her remains were never transferred.

Nicola Rossi-Lemini inherited Radclyffe Hall's papers from Una. Andrea died three years after her mother in a car accident.

Related persons
• was painted by Brooks, Romaine
• translated work by Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle
• was the lover of Hall, Radclyffe
• wrote about Hall, Radclyffe
• made a sculpture of Nijinski, Vaslav

Events
1/2/1926Memorial service for admiral Troubridge at Westminster Cathedral. The admiral had died on 26 January 1926 in Biarritz. His widow Una and his daughter Andrea were present. 

Images

The grave of Una Troubridge at the Cimitero Monumentale al Verano, Rome.
Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2015)

 

The grave of Una Troubridge at the Cimitero Monumentale al Verano, Rome.
Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2015)

 

Sources
• Cline, Sally, Radclyffe Hall, A Woman called John, The Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York, 1998
• Dickson, Lovat, Radclyffe Hall at the Well of Loneliness, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1975
• Ormrod, Richard, UnaTroubridge, The Friend of Radclyffe Hall, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 1985
• Souhami, Diana, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall, Virago Press, London, 1999
Una Vincenzo - Wikipedia


Trübner, Wilhelm

Published: 22 Mar 2015
Last update: 24 Feb 2024