When Frederick Lugard proposed to Flora Shaw, she declined initially. The man she was deeply in love with and had hoped to marry after his wife, Matilda, died in 1898, Sir George Taubman Goldie, founder of the Royal Niger Company with a private empire of over 300,000 square miles, had rebuffed her.
Shaw reconsidered Lugard's 1901 proposal on the rebound and accepted it with these words:
"You once said you would win my love. I too, hope to win yours. We can't force it. Let us not try on either side, but let us be content to marry as friends."
Lugard and Shaw were married in Madeira in 1902. She was 49, while he was 44, and by her accounts, she did not share a bedroom with her husband. They both died childless.
Flora Shaw was an accomplished author, a one-time highest-paid female journalist in England, a lobbyist and a political correspondent. She was described as fair, extremely intelligent and professional. She died of pneumonia in January 1929, three days after Lugard's 71st birthday. She was 76.
Friendzoned in a 26-year-old marriage, Lugard would survive his wife by 16 years and died on April 11, 1945. He was 87. #HistoryVille
HistoryVille
FREDERICK LUGARD: FRIENDZONED IN MARRIAGE
When Frederick Lugard proposed to Flora Shaw, she declined initially. The man she was deeply in love with and had hoped to marry after his wife, Matilda, died in 1898, Sir George Taubman Goldie, founder of the Royal Niger Company with a private empire of over 300,000 square miles, had rebuffed her.
Shaw reconsidered Lugard's 1901 proposal on the rebound and accepted it with these words:
"You once said you would win my love. I too, hope to win yours. We can't force it. Let us not try on either side, but let us be content to marry as friends."
Lugard and Shaw were married in Madeira in 1902. She was 49, while he was 44, and by her accounts, she did not share a bedroom with her husband. They both died childless.
Flora Shaw was an accomplished author, a one-time highest-paid female journalist in England, a lobbyist and a political correspondent. She was described as fair, extremely intelligent and professional. She died of pneumonia in January 1929, three days after Lugard's 71st birthday. She was 76.
Friendzoned in a 26-year-old marriage, Lugard would survive his wife by 16 years and died on April 11, 1945. He was 87. #HistoryVille
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