According to one report, she was the leader of the Melbourne ladies who presented Bligh with "a tiny silver urn, containing what they termed 'the ashes of Australian cricket.'"[6] (There is reason to believe, from that description and other records, that more than one "Ashes urn" came into being over time, the one she gave to the MCC after her husband's death in 1927[7] being of terracotta, not apparently silvered.)[citation needed]
Career
In 1902 the Countess of Darnley co-wrote, with Randolph Hodgson, a romantic novel titled Elma Trevor. In the novel, the eponymous heroine, "loved by one man ... marrie[s] another, and in the end discovers that she is made for a third".[8] Also in 1902, under the pen-name "Hildred Codrington", she wrote a religious novel, The Silvery Dawn, "written for the purpose of illustrating the power of righteousness and truthfulness as principles of human action".[9] She also wrote hymns under the same pen-name.[3]
Florence and Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley (1859–1927) were married in St. Mary's Church, Sunbury, with the reception held at Rupertswood, near Melbourne, Australia on 9 February 1884.[4][12] In 1900, when her husband succeeded to the title of Earl of Darnley, she became Countess of Darnley. Together, they were the parents of:
Lt.-Col. Hon. Noel Gervase Bligh (1888–1984), who married Mary Jack Frost, a daughter of Capt. George Alfred Frost, in 1912. After their divorce in 1934, he married Dorothy Millicent Isabella Munroe, the former wife of Caryl Henry Courthorpe (nee Bevan) Munroe and daughter of Hubert Lee Bevan, in 1934. Following her death in 1972, he married thirdly to Mrs. Kathleen Weatherill Strickland.
Lady Dorothy Violet Bligh (1893–1976), who married Capt. Daniel Spencer Peploe of Charcroft Farm, Brewham, eldest son and heir of Daniel Henry Theophilus Peploe DL of Garnstone Castle, in 1916.
Lord Darnley died on 10 April 1927 and was succeeded in the earldom by their eldest son, Esme Ivo. Lady Darnley died on 30 August 1944 in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire,[13] and was buried in the collegiate church of St Mary Magdalene, Cobham, Kent. The couple's grave was rededicated in May 2011.[14]
