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Lady Queenborough
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Edith Starr Miller
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Noteworthy in the historiography of conspiracy theory, Edith Starr Miller is a widely quoted yet little known figure. Her title, Lady Queenborough, is often misspelt "Queensborough" and sometimes referred to as a pen-name or pseudonym. Her name is sometimes linked with the Order of the Golden Dawn and the British Fascist movement. Her death in Paris on Sunday January 16, 1933 is sometimes described as suspicious. Neither the suspicions nor links—nor her birthdate—appear to be documented.
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Lady Queenborough with her two eldest children
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Edith Starr Miller, daughter of William Starr Miller of New York and niece of Lloyd E. Warren, married Almeric Hugh Paget (1861/03/14 -1949/09/22) — first and only Lord Queenborough and sixth son of Lord Alfred Henry Paget (d1888) — on July 19,1921, by whom she had three daughters.
Of her parents, all that is known is that her father William Starr Miller — a socially prominent New York industrialist — commissioned the architects Carrere & Hastings to design his six-storey townhouse at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street in 1914.
Although something is known of Almeric’s life, and that of his two daughters, Olive (Lady Baillie) and Dorothy, from his first marriage (New York: 1895/11/18) to Pauline Whitney (1874-November 22, 1916), little is known about Edith.
Some conjectures can be made. Assuming that the only available picture of Lady Queenborough was taken in 1924 when her second of three children was less than a year old, it is a portrait of a women in her mid-thirties and therefore she was probably born in or around 1890. From her first book, Common Sense, we learn that in March of 1917 she found herself, with no previous experience, responsible for the management of a household of "12 servants and 3 masters" in a house, 50' by 100', of seven stories, including cellar, basement and attic. Whether she counts herself among the servants or masters, or not at all, is unclear, nor whose household she was managing. Her father’s house, built in 1914, is described as being six stories, but this may not have included the cellar. All we know is that there were 4 men and 8 women among the servants. She supplies a list of eleven servants, including one butler, two footmen and a lady’s maid. This all may suggest that her mother died in February, 1917 and, as eldest or only daughter, she found herself running the household for her father and, possibly, brothers. When she provides examples of quantites of food consumed, she notes three scenarios: normal management, extravagent management and unsupervised management. She claims that her information is based on her own collecting of data so the assumption can be made that normal management is her’s, extravagant management was her predecessor’s—possibly her mother—and unsupervised management refers to the month of June when she was, one again assumes from internal evidence, not in New York. This is all conjecture. Common Sense was written by E.S. Miller. The identification of E.S. Miller with Edith Starr Miller is ascribed to the British Museum.
Common Sense is noteworthy, not only for what little biographical information it contains, but also for two insights into her thinking. Her motivation in preparing this book is not so much home economics as it is suspicion: if you don't keep an eye on the servants, they'll steal you blind. She makes numerous references to "extravagance (or something else) on the part of cooks", to "Graft or waste or both", and ways to "discourage grafters and thieves" and the "easy swindle." Her lack of organized thinking — or an editor — also shows itself. At several points she inserts unrelated remarks on housekeeping, or asks the reader to compare her charts with other pages. A quick check of the noted pages will either show charts of irrelevent, uncomparable data, or in one case a title page and in another, a recipe for puff pastry.
Edith Starr Miller wrote three books: the first, Common sense in the Kitchen, in 19181., the second, Occult Theocrasy2. published posthumously in France, in 1933, and a third, Judaism. Although on the catalogue of the State University of Washington, this third book is unavailable and may be a chimera.
Occult Theocrasy relies heavily on the published works of self-described 33° freemason, Domenico Margiotta; the hoaxers Dr. Karl Hacks and Leo Taxil and their creations, Diana Vaughan and Dr. Bataille;3. the imaginary Miss. Vaughan’s promoter, Adriano Lemmi; anti-mason, Samuel Paul Rosen (1840-1907), theosophist, Alice Bailey (1880-1949); Taxil’s supporter, Clarin de la Rive; antisemite, Nesta H. Webster and the once anonymous "Inquire Within".4.
In the balance, Miller brought nothing new to the mythology of the secret societies, although her anti-masonic and anti-Mormon rhetoric continues to be quoted in fundamentalist Christian literature.
There are few clues in Occult Theocrasy as to the author’s life. She dedicated the book to her uncle, Lloyd E. Warren, "who first guided me in this work". She thanks Brigadier-General R. B. D. Blakeney, a Theosophist, a member of The Quest and a communicant of the Liberal Catholic Church, for supplying copies of a collection of letters and warrants concerning Theodore Reuss, Aleister Crowley, William Wynn Westcott and John Yarker. The International league for historical research, under whose auspices the book is ostensibly published, has left no other trace of its existence.
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Lady Queenborough has left little public record of her life. The fourth edition of the Tuesday January 17, 1933 New York Times (p. 19) ran a five line obituary: QUEENBOROUGH — Edith, wife of Almeric Paget, Lord Queenborough of London, England, and daughter of Mr. & Mrs. William Starr Miller of New York, in Paris, France, Jan 16, 1933. The New York Times Obituaries Index later misspelt her name "Queensborough" (1970 : p. 87.).
Nothing was published in the The Times in London during the week following her death. Even in Heirs of Tradition,5 where Almeric Paget warrants a 14-page chapter, Edith Miller gets short shrift: "His second wife, Miss Edith Starr Miller, married in 1920, was also an American. It was she who found out and chose for him his present home, Camfield Place, near Hatfield, in which the fine interiors, designed by herself, raise a monument both of her taste and his own. She left him with three daughters." No mention of her birth or death; no mention of her literary career. There is also no mention of either her or Almeric’s fascist leanings although there is one reference to his support of Spain’s General Franco.6
Of the two known confidants of Lady Queenborough, Lloyd E. Warren is a cypher but R.B.D. Blakeney has left some record.
Robert Byron Drury Blakeney
Brigadier-General Robert Byron Drury Blakeney (1872-1952), second British Fascisti (BF) president from 1924 to 1926, cited fascism as "the adult growth of... the Scout Movement. Both uphold the same lofty ideals of brotherhood, service and duty." He was Editor in Chief of the Fascist Bulletin; and the main speaker at BF meetings on November 26, 1924 and February 1925. Blakeney left the BF in the spring of 1926, over the conflict of whether the BF should merge with the Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS), losing the leadership to the BF’s founder Rotha Beryl Lintorn-Orman (1895-1935).7. As a member of the antisemitic Imperial Fascist League he spoke at at least one meeting.8. He later joined the Britons, the BUF, and the Nordic League. Avoiding internment during World War Two, he served in the Home Guard.
Almeric High Paget, Lord Queenborough
Born one of fourteen children in 1861, Almeric Paget left Harrow in the late 1879 with few resources and moved to the American mid-west, herding cattle for several years near Le Mars, Iowa, where he was befriended by Theodore Roosevelt. He later relocated to St Paul, Minnesota where he took up real estate sales. His brother, Arthur, introduced him into New York society where he developed further business contacts and met his first wife, Pauline Whitney. In 1901 he returned to England for his wife’s health. Independently wealthy and politically active after 1906, in 1920 he became treasurer of the League of Nations Union, an office he filled for sixteen years until he became disillusioned with the League’s development and resigned. 9
Lord Queenborough, Unionist MP (1910-1917) for Cambridge,10. was a frequent letter and article writer, proclaiming the dangers of the international Bolshevik plot in various publications. In the August 1935 number of English Review, his article 'World Plan in Action' referred to a Bolshevist, masonic plot in Europe. In an article titled 'All that we hold most dear', in the September 19, 1936 Saturday Review, he described National Socialist Germany as having 'produced order from chaos', while in a forward to Charles Domville-Fife’s This is Germany, [London: 1939]11. Queenborough praised Hitler’s new Germany. 12.
Almeric had considerable business interests in America and was director of several commercial concerns. He was Governor of Guy’s Hospital, President of Miller General Hospital at Greenwich, member of Council of the Royal Zoölogical Society and President of the Royal Society of St. George. 13.
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Almeric Paget biographical notices
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LORD QUEENBOROUGH
Died on September 22, age eighty-eight, He was a keen all-round sportsman and was a well-known figure in the yachting world and on the Turf, and was President of the Royal Society of St. George and a former President of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. He had no son and the peerage becomes extinct.14
Photo also reproduced in Heirs of Tradition, plate facing p. 94, credited to Lenare.
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QUEENBOROUGH, BARON. (Paget.) [Baron U.K. 1918.]
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ALMERIC HUGH PAGET, G.B.E., 1st Baron, son of the late Gen. Lord Alfred Henry Paget, C.B. [see M. Anglesey, colls.] ; b. March 14th, 1861 ; is an Hon. Fellow of Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge, a J.P. for London and Suffolk (High Sheriff 1909), a Gov. of Guy’s Hospital, a K.J.St.J., and Pres. Miller Gen. Hospital (Greenwich) ; sometime Commodore Roy. Thames Yacht Club ; Pres. of National Union of Conservative and Unionist Assos. 1928-9, and has been Pres. of Eastern Provincial Div. of the Asso. since 1909 ; sat as M.P. for Cambridge Borough (C) Jan. 1910 to July 1917, having been defeated there Jan. 1906 ; cr. Baron Queenborough. of Queenborough, Kent (peerage of United Kingdom) 1918, and G.B.E. (Civil) 1926 : m. 1st, 1895, Pauline, who d. 1916, dau of William C. Whitney, sometime Sec. of U.S Navy ; 2ndly, 1921, Edith Starr, who d. 1933, dau. of William Starr Miller, of New York, U.S.A., and has issue.
DAUGHTERS LIVING (By 1st marriage.)
Hon. Olive Cecilia (Hon. Lady Baillie), b. 1899 : m. 1st, 1919, the Hon. Charles John Frederic Winn (from whom she obtained a divorce 1925), late 10th Hussars [see B. St. Oswald] ; 2ndly, 1925, Arthur Thomas Filmer Wilson-Filmer, from whom she obtained a divorce 1931 [see Filmer, Bt.] ; 3rdly, 1931, Sir Adrian William Maxwell Baillie, 6th Bt. Residences,— Leeds Castle, Maidstone ; Polkemmet, Whitburn, West Lothian ; 45, Upper Grosvenor Street W. 1.
Hon. Dorothy Wyndham, b. 1905.
(By 2nd marriage.)
Hon. Audrey Elizabeth, b. 1922.
Hon. Enid Louise, b. 1923.
Hon. Cicili Carol, b. 1928.15
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QUEENBOROUGH, 88, A BARON, ONCE M.P.
Former Cowpuncher Who Came to U. S. With £5 in Youth and Made a Fortune Dies
Special to the New York Times
LONDON. Sept. 22—Lord Queenborough, former president of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, who in his youth was sent to the United States with £5 capital and later made a fortune, died today at his home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He was 88 years of age
The former Almeric Hugh Paget, he was the son of Gen. Lord Alfred Henry Paget and a grandson of the first Marquess of Anglesey, who commanded the British cavalry at Waterloo. In America Lord Queenborough spent an adventurous period in the northwest as a cowpuncher and farmhand. Later he went to St. Paul, Minn. where he laid the foundation of his business career. In 1895 he married Miss. Pauline Payne Whitney, daughter of the former United States Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney. They had two daughters.
Later Lord Queenborough was president of the Chihuahua & Pacific Railroad and an officer or a director of many other companies. After his return to Britain, he became Conservative member of Parliament for Cambridge, a seat he held until his resignation in 1917. The next year he was made a Baron.
Lord Queenborough’s wife died in 1916 and five years later he married Edith Miller, daughter of William Starr Miller of New York. His second wife, by whom he had three daughters, died in 1933.
Lord Queenborough had a fierce dislike for communism and the admittance of Russia to the League of Nations in 1936 prompted his resignation as treasurer of the League of Nations Union, a position he had filled for sixteen years.16
1. Common Sense in the Kitchen, Normal Rations in Normal Times. by E. S. Miller. New York: Brentino’s [English Books], 1918. 55pp. 22 x 17.5 cm. [Library, University of Massachusetts. From the Estate of Carolyn Maddox Beard.] <:http://www.jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/Out_of_Step.doc>
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2.
Occult Theocrasy, Lady Queenborough (Edith Starr Miller), d. 1933. "Achevé d'imprimer le 4 septembre 1933 par F. Paillart a Abbeville (France)" [from inside back cover of vol. ii of 22 cm ed.] [F. Paillart , éditeur - BP 324 - 80100 Abbeville Tél. : 03.22.20.60.20 - Fax : 03.22.20.60.21 - Email : imp.paillart@wanadoo.fr]. 2v : front. (ports.) illus., facsims. (1 fold.) index; 23 cm. "Published posthumously for private circulation only." Published under the auspices of the International league for historical research. Reprint by Hawthorne, Cal[if.], Christian Book Club of America [1968] 2 v. (741 p.) in 1. illus. 22 cm. LCCN: 68004740. Reprint by Omni publications, HB, [1980?]. <:www.jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/Out_of_Step.doc>
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3.
Bataille, Dr., [pseud.] Le Diable au XIX Siècle, ou les mystères du spiritisme. La franc-maçonnerie luciférienne. Révélations complètes sur le palladisme ... Nombreuses gravures. Paris, 1896. 2 vol. ; 4o. C., H., le Comte, Docteur en droit Mémoire à l'adresse des membres du Congrès antimaçonnique de Trente, par le comte H. C., docteur en droit [i.e. Count H. J. M. Coudenhove-Kalergi]. [A criticism of "Le Diable au XIX Siècle" published by G. Jogand-Pagès and C. Hacks under the pseudonym "Docteur Bataille."] Wien; Paris, 1897, [1896]. pp. 40. ; 8o. Cf.: Souvenirs d'un Trente-Troisième. Adriano Lemmi, chef suprème des francsmaçons. [With a preface signed: Docteur Bataille.] Paris, 1896. pp. xv. 368. ; 8o. ^
4.
Christina M. Stoddard is claimed to have once been head of a schismatic Golden Dawn order called the Stella Matutina. Confessions of a God Seeker, A Journey to Higher Consciousness, Ford Johnson. Silver Springs, MD : "One" Publishing, Inc., 2003. p. 55. Light Bearers of Darkness, "Inquire Within" [Christina M. Stoddard]. London : Boswell Printing & Publishing Co, 1930. 207 p ; 23 cm. The Trail of the Serpent, "Inquire Within", London : Boswell Publishing Co., 1936. pp. viii. 325. ; 8o. comprised of contributions to The Patriot from 1930 to 1935. Cf.: The Patriot London : The Boswell Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd, 1922-1950. 47v : ill ; 33 cm. [Monthly, 1948-1950 No number was issued for May 6, 1926]. "Miss C.M. Stoddart". Cf. The Occult Establishment, James Webb, La Salle, Ill. : Open Court, 1976, pp.219-20. Cited in Anti-Semitic Propaganda - An Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide, Robert Singerman, New York : Garland Publishing, 1982, ISBN 0-8240-9270-8.
<:http://www.jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/Out_of_Step.doc>
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5.
Heirs of Tradition, Tributes of a New Zealander, Robert Sencourt [pseud. of Robert Esmonde Gordon George (1890-1969)]. ch. vi. "Lord Queenborough and his circle". London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1949. 307pp. 14 x 22.6 cm.. pp. 94-108. note pp. 105-06.
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6.
Ibid, p. 172.
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7.
Feminine Fascism, Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement, 1923-1945. Julie V. Gottlieb. I.B. Tauris Publishers, London, New York. 2000. HB 378 pp. [ see p. 13, 16, 22. Who’s Who] ISBN: 1-86064-544-55. Cf.: 'British Fascism, The Nineteenth Century and After, 97 (January 1925), 132-42. cited by Gottlieb, p. 13, 16, 22. Who’s Who ^
8.
November, 1933, at Trinity Hall, Great Portland Street, London. Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel Doctor, Arnold Spencer Leese. 1946. <:http://www.jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/Out_of_Step.doc> ^
9.
Heirs of Tradition, Tributes of a New Zealander, Robert Sencourt. ch. vi. "Lord Queenborough and his circle". London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1949. 307pp. 14 x 22.6 cm.. pp. 94-108.
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10. 1906: S.O. Buckmaster (Lib) 4,232 (51.9%); A.H. Paget (Con) 3,924 (48.1%); Liberal Gain, Maj 308, 3.8%. Jan. 1910: A.H. Paget (Con) 4,667 (53.4%); S.O Buckmaster (Lib) 4,080 (46.6%); Conservative Gain, Maj 587, (6.7%). Dec. 1910: A.H. Paget (Con) 4,427 (52.0%); S.O. Buckmaster (Lib) 4,084 (48.0%); No change, Con Maj 343, 4.0%. Byelection 1917/07/25: Rt Hon Sir E C Geddes (Con) Elected unopposed, No change. Cambridge Constituency Parliamentary Elections since 1832, Colin Rosenstiel & Keith Edkins 2001<cix.co.uk/~rosenstiel/camelect/parly.htm>
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11.
This is Germany, Charles W. Domville-Fife. With a Foreword by Lord Queenborough, G.B.E.. London: Seely Service & Co. Ltd. 196 Shaftesbury Avenue. R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh. 1939. HB 288 pp.. Forward, pp. v-viii: "It has been wisely said that, upon examination, few things prove wholly bad, and in view of the vital and urgent need for a better understanding between ourselves and Germany this work, which reveals so much that is sound and constructive and worthy of praise, should serve as a timely and excellent antidote to the over numerous publications designed solely to vilify and distort and denigrate the policy and achievements of the remarkable man who, after fifteen years of bitter struggle, became the leader of eighty millions of Germans." Written Camfield Place, Hatfield, Herts.
Cf.: Let the Great Story be Told, the truth about British expansion, by H. Wood Jarvis. London: Staples Press Limited, 1946, 1947, 1957. 304 pp.. Forward, By the Rt. Hon. The Lord Queenborough, G.B.E. (Former President of the Royal Society of St George) The 'Planting of People and Habitations' pp. vii-ix: "...the British conception of Imperial Unity and co-operative defence arose on a voluntary basis; and the spontaneous rallying of the "Overseas Peoples to the assistance of England in 1914 and again in 1939 speaks for itself." "...the moral intention and practical effects have been to carry the principles of justice and compassion, steadfastness and sympathy, mercy and enlightenment, wherever the British flag flies." Postscript, pp. 282-83: "...the British Empire does not deserve to shrink or perish; but should stand as a spiritual and material power to protect the peace and enhance the happiness of mankind...." ^
12.
Cited in Fellow Travellers of the Right, British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany 1933-39. Richard Griffiths. London: Constable, 1980 HB 406 pp. [pp. 235-36, 235-6n, 238, 345, 345n.] jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/Out_of_Step.doc> Also see for the evolution of Nesta Webster’s views about the Jews and Germany. ^
13.
The new extinct peerage, 1884-1971: containing extinct, abeyant, dormant & suspended peerages with genealogies and arms, Leslie Gilbert Pine (1907- ). London, Heraldry Today, 1972. xxvii, 313, [19] p. coats of arms. 25 cm. Forms a continuation of J. B. Burke’s A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British Empire. (new ed., 1883) Sir Bernard Burke (1814-1892). pp. 222-23. ^
14.
Illustrated London News. October 1, 1949. vol. 215. p. 503.
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15.
Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and and Companionage, Edited by Arthur G.M. Hesilrige. London: Dean & Son, Limited, 6, La Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill E.C.4, 1934. p. 791.
Also see: Biography index, B. Joseph, New York: H. W. Wilson Co. v. 27 cm. "A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines." Aug 1949-Aug 1952, where Almeric is noted as being the British Conservative Party leader. Also see Obituaries on file, compiled by Felice Levy. New York : Facts on File, 1979. 2 v. (1010 p.) ; 29 cm. v. 2. S-index and New York Times, September 23, 1949, p. 23. ^
16.The New York Times, Friday September 23, 1949. [page not noted]. ^
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