{{Short description|English socialite (1907–1972)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|Lady Mary Bridget Parsons
'''Lady Mary Bridget Parsons''' (27 October 1907 – 26 January 1972) was an English socialite, part of the Bright Young Things.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Amusing Turns Brighten Coming-of-Age Party - 16 Jul 1927, Sat • Page 33|journal=The Winnipeg Tribune|date=1927|page=33|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6009910/lady_bridget_parsons_one_of_the/|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
==Biography== Lady Mary Bridget Parsons was born on 27 October 1907, the daughter of William Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse and Frances Lois Lister-Kaye, Viscountess de Vesci of Abbey Leix.<ref>{{cite journal|title=In British News of the Week - 04 Aug 1928, Sat • Page 24|journal=The Winnipeg Tribune|date=1928|page=24|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6009739/lady_mary_bridget_parsons/|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Mosley">Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003</ref>
In the 1920s she was part of the wild crowd known as the Bright Young Things. Jeremy Hutchinson defended her on a drink driving charge (Deborah Mitford and her husband, Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire were passengers). A police officer standing guard outside the German Embassy arrested her and locked her in the embassy building, but she was seen to sway as she got into the taxi that had been called. Hutchinson persuaded the court that Parsons' uncertainty on her feet was caused by her high heels and tight evening dress. Photographs following the verdict show her being led out of court by John Betjeman, who apparently said to her "A wonderful show! This way, Bridget, old girl!".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Thomas|title=Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories: From Lady Chatterley's Lover to Howard Marks|date=2015|publisher=Hachette UK|page=32|isbn=9781444799743|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPfMBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT32|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> She has been credited with her brother Michael to have introduced the Charleston in Mayfair ballrooms.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=D J|title=Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940|date=2010|publisher=Random House|page=22|isbn=9781409020639|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxGcgrlmF14C&pg=PA22|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
For a time in the 1930s, she had an affair with Sacheverell Sitwell.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bradford|first1=Sarah|title=Sacheverell Sitwell: splendours and miseries|date=1993|publisher=Sinclair-Stevenson|page=224|isbn=9781856191609|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mlhbAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Zita James|journal=The Telegraph|date=2006|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1511193/Zita-James.html|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> She was friend with Clarissa Eden, who said "I have never had women friends with whom I exchanged confidences, except perhaps now in old age and retrospectively. My friendship with Bridget was based on her being exceptionally intelligent and knowledgeable and, being older, more sophisticated. She was also extremely beautiful and had been loved by many, but either through fastidiousness or lack of passion seemed never to have responded."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eden|first1=Clarissa|title=Clarissa Eden: A Memoir - From Churchill To Eden|date=2008|publisher=Hachette UK|page=107|isbn=9780297856320|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PcmcARilnX8C&pg=PT107|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> Daphne Fielding wrote in her memoirs that Bridget Parsons had an affair with Prince George, Duke of Kent.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fielding|first1=Daphne Vivian|title=Those Remarkable Cunards: Emerald and Nancy|date=1968|publisher=Atheneum|page=[https://archive.org/details/thoseremarkablec00fiel/page/103 103]|url=https://archive.org/details/thoseremarkablec00fiel|url-access=registration|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
James Lees-Milne, who, at school loved two boys, Tom Mitford and Desmond Parsons (both died very young), afterwards became infatuated with their sisters who reminded him of them, Diana Mitford and Bridget Parsons.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lees-Milne|first1=James|last2=Bloch|first2=Michael|title=Diaries, 1971-1983|date=2011|publisher=Hachette UK|page=6|isbn=9781848547100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHfFECtM6w0C&pg=PT6|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
In November 1935 a portrait of Lady Mary Bridget Parsons by Cecil Beaton appeared on ''Vogue''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vogue - November 1935 - Lady Mary Bridget Parsons|url=http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Vogue-November-1935-Lady-Mary-Bridget-Parsons-Posters_i8707133_.htm|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> She was Beaton's friend, and frequented his house, Ashcombe, together with Diana Cavendish, Tony Herbert, Tilly Losch, Teresa Jungman, Elizabeth Smith{{who|date=June 2020}}<!-- This is possibly meant to be Pamela Smith, aka Pamela Margaret Elizabeth Smith, or her sister, Eleanor Smith (writer), but I don't have the references to confirm it. -->, Lady Caroline Paget, David Herbert.<ref>{{cite book|last1=de Courcy|first1=Anne|title=1939: The Last Season|date=2012|publisher=Hachette UK|page=41|isbn=9781780225777|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LGNBfG_FUEsC&pg=PA41|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> Other friends included: Randolph Churchill and Tanis Guinness.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Leslie|first1=Anita|title=Randolph: The Biography of Winston Churchill's Son|date=1985|publisher=Beaufort Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/randolphbiograph00lesl/page/117 117]|isbn=9780825302848|url=https://archive.org/details/randolphbiograph00lesl|url-access=registration|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
She was friends with Cynthia Gladwyn, who wrote in her diaries: "It is curious to look back on those nights when Bridget Parsons and I used to sit on the staircase, wrapped in rugs, trying to talk about trivialities while the great thunder of the Blitzes raged and the whole building shook and the lights dipped. One didn't know for sure which crashes were our guns and which were bombs. Then at last the All Clear would sound and we'd go back to our beds."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gladwyn|first1=Cynthia|title=The diaries of Cynthia Gladwyn|date=1995|publisher=Constable|page=41|isbn=9780094731301|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oI1nAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
She lived at Womersley Park, Womersley, West Yorkshire, England.<ref name="red1st">{{cite web|title=Mary Bridget Parsons|url=https://www.red1st.com/axholme/getperson.php?personID=I7098333554&tree=Axholme|website=red1st|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> She was on the board of the Zoological Society.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Powell|first1=Anthony|title=Journals 1982|date=2015|publisher=Random House|page=70|isbn=9781473535459|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=coWpBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT70|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> She was friends with Patrick Leigh Fermor, who visited often Birr Castle, her family castle.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=Artemis|title=Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure|date=2012|publisher=Hachette UK|page=125|isbn=9781848546707|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fb3I309jFbYC&pg=PT125|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref>
She died unmarried on 26 January 1972<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hughes|first1=Stefan|title=Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens|date=2012|publisher=ArtDeCiel Publishing|page=1109|isbn=9781620509616|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZk5OOf7fVYC&pg=PA1109|accessdate=21 January 2018}}</ref> and is buried at St. Martin's Churchyard, Womersley, with her mother, Frances Lois Lister-Kaye, Viscountess de Vesci of Abbey Leix.<ref name="red1st" /><ref name="Mosley" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Bridget}} Category:1907 births Category:1972 deaths Category:English socialites Category:Daughters of Irish earls