Lady Diana was one of the most famous members of the Coterie. She wrote to Edward Horner on 7 August 1914, claiming that she thought it was "...up to the Coterie to stop this war. Members included Duff Cooper, Raymond Asquith, son of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, Maurice Baring; Patrick Shaw-Stewart, a managing director of Barings Bank, war poet Nancy Cunard and her friend Iris Tree; Edward Horner, Sir Denis Anson, Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho and Yvo Alan Charteris.
During the First World War, Lady Diana worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse at the Rutland Hospital in Charring Cross and Guy's Hospital in London and was Mentioned in Despatches. She later worked at a hospital for officers set up by her mother in London. She also worked briefly as editor of the magazine "Femina" and for Beaverbrook newspapers, before becoming an actress. Her war work as a nurse increased her popularity. Diana was mentioned in a WW1 parody of the music hall song “Burlington Bertie” - "I'll eat a banana/with Lady Diana/Aristocracy working at Guy's".
Lady Diana Manners married one of the few survivors of WW1 from her circle of friends - Duff Cooper – who went on to become an British Ambassador to France. She became became famous as the socialite and writer Lady Diana Cooper.
The photograph (photographer unknown) shows Nancy Cunard (centre) and Lady Diana Manners (left) at a sale in December 1915, held in Harrods department store, Loneon, UK in aid of the Red Cross Fund. Photograph from “The Tatler” Magazine, 8th December 1915.
Photograph found by Zoe Lyons and posted on Sue Robinson’s Facebook Group Wenches in Trenches https://www.facebook.com/groups/381631619655707/
