Biography

The youngest daughter of Robert and Joan Dunsmuir was Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir (1872-1950). Maud moved into Craigdarroch with her mother, sisters, nephew, and niece in the fall of 1890. She spent most of the following decade enjoying the pursuits of most young women of her social class in Victoria—music, tennis, horseback riding, hosting and attending “At Homes”, dances, performing volunteer work, and travelling.  Like two of her seven sisters and most of her nieces, Maud was destined to marry into the British aristocracy. She accompanied her sisters on a voyage to Ireland in 1898 and was presented at Dublin’s vice-regal court.
 
Soon afterward, a Victoria newspaper reported: “ Miss Maud Dunsmuir, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Robert Dunsmuir and Mrs. Dunsmuir of Craigdarroch, this city, was married at St. Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, Dublin, Ireland yesterday to Reginald Spencer Chaplin, 10th Royal Hussars - Aide-de-camp to Field Marshall Lord Roberts and only son of Col. J.W. Chaplin V.C., C.B., late of the 8th Hussars.”
 
A gilt-framed portrait in the Craigdarroch Castle Collection (see: 2006.022.001b) depicts Maud probably just before her marriage. The large photo albums in the Collection (see: 2009.002) belonged to her. They contain images of Reggie’s military life and of Maud and Reggie together on fishing trips into the British Columbia wilderness.

Maud and Reggie had a long and happy marriage living in England, Ireland, and Vancouver. Their country house in Hampshire, named ‘The House in the Wood’ is still owned by her great-grandchildren. During WWII, it was used by the Special Operations Executive, an organization known informally as “Churchill’s Secret Army” or “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”. Its mission was to facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines and to serve as the core of the Auxiliary Units, a British resistance movement set up in anticipation of a Nazi invasion.   
 
Maud’s daughter Joan Isobel (“June”) Chaplin (1899-1977) married Rudolph de Trafford, son of Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 3^rd Baronet. The de Trafford family traces its roots to 960 AD. One ancestor was a financial adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, and the family held significant business interests in Lancashire. June’s husband’s brother was Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 4^th Baronet. His daughter Ann’s son is Andrew Parker Bowles, the former husband of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
 
June divorced de Trafford in 1938 and married Thomas Touchet-Jesson, 23^rd Baron Audley (of Heleigh). After their divorce in 1957, Baron Audley married Sarah Churchill, daughter of Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CG, TD, PC, FRS, former Prime Minister of Great Britain.
 
Maud’s son John Robert (“Jacky”) Chaplin (1901-1970) served in the British Army and was Aide-de-camp to Sir Julian Hedworth George Byng, Viscount Byng of Vimy, the twelfth Governor General of Canada (served 1921-26). Jacky was also an amateur aviator who routinely arrived at family gatherings flying his own aircraft.
 

Lifetime

1872 – 1950