Notable South Australians/Lady Charlotte Mary Bacon (née Harley)
Lady Charlotte Mary Bacon (née Harley),
THIRD daughter of Edward, 5th Earl of Oxford and Mortimer; widow of the late General Bacon, a Waterloo veteran, of the 11th Hussars. After the General's death, Lady Charlotte went to South Australia to see her three children, who had been some time settled in Adelaide (Mr. Edward Bacon, Mr. Harley Bacon, and Mrs. C. B. Young). Admiring the want of ceremony of colonial life, her ladyship remained in the colony for twelve years, taking a lively and active interest in most matters, and her genial and affable manners made her a general favourite. During this period she was engaged in a tedious Chancery suit, which terminated in putting her into possession of her late father's estate of Eywood, in Herefordshire, and a large amount of London property. She only lived three years in England to enjoy her large fortune, and she often looked back to the time spent in Australia as the happiest of her life. She left Adelaide in 1877, and died in 1880. Her son, Mr. Edward Bacon, inherits the estate, and the Earldom of Oxford has become extinct. Lord Byron was a great admirer of her ladyship in her early youth, and his celebrated verses "To Ianthe," in the opening of the poem of "Childe Harold," were addressed to her. On her death two admirable likenesses of her as "Ianthe," and one taken shortly before her death appeared in the Illustrated London News.