ence there came to an end. She returned to England in 1892, bent upon introducing into the English Temperance Association the wider views and the new methods which she had seen working so well in the United States. But she preached to unsympathetic ears. Eventually, in 1903, weary of controversy and with health impaired, she resigned her presidency. Meanwhile, in 1898, on the death of Miss Willard, she had been elected to replace her as president of the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union, an office which she held until 1906.
In 1895 Lady Henry founded Duxhurst, a farm colony, near Reigate, for inebriate women, adding to it afterwards a ‘nest’ for children rescued from bad surroundings. Duxhurst was the first institution of its kind in England. In contrast with the usual procedure of institutions for inebriates the women were treated not as criminals and outcasts under punishment, but simply as patients, and met from the first with courtesy, trust, and sympathy. Living at the Priory, Reigate, in constant contact with them, Lady Henry by her charm, artistic gifts, resourcefulness, and sense of humour, in conjunction with her higher qualities, profoundly influenced the varied characters of those who had taken refuge in the colony. Ultimately it was upon religion that she relied the most, and to religious influences she was wont to attribute the unusual success of her work. The six and twenty years of her work at Duxhurst, taken all in all, brought more satisfaction and happiness into her life than any other of her public and private ventures. All that had gone before, of labour, of suffering, and of experience led up to this and found in this its compensating fruit. She worked on with a zeal which increasing infirmity was not allowed to abate, until, with short warning, she died in London 12 March 1921.
Lady Henry's publications include: Our Village Life (in verse, 1884); Sketches in Black and White (1896); In an Old Garden (1900); Under the Arch of Life (a novel, 1906); and Beauty for Ashes (1913). In 1894 she founded the Woman's Signal (the official organ of the British Women's Temperance Association), of which she became editor, and, in addition, she contributed many articles to English and American magazines.
[Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Lady Henry Somerset: a Memoir, 1923; Ray Strachey, Frances Willard, her Life and Work, 1912; personal knowledge.]
SPIERS, RICHARD PHENÉ (1838–1916), architect, was born at Oxford 19 May 1838, the eldest son of Alderman Richard James Spiers, a leading citizen of Oxford and mayor in 1854, by his wife, Elizabeth Phené, daughter of Thomas Joy, of Oxford. Walter Spiers, a younger brother, was curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, from 1904 to 1917. Phené Spiers was educated at King's College School and in the engineering department of King's College, London. From 1858 to 1861 he was a student, in the atelier Questel, of the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Returning to England, he became assistant to Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt [q.v.], who was then engaged on works, particularly the grand staircase and internal courtyard, at the India Office, Whitehall. Spiers's relations with Wyatt were close and sympathetic.
In 1861 Spiers was elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects; in 1863 he gained the silver and gold medals of the Royal Academy, and in 1864 the travelling studentship. In 1865 he won the Soane medallion and £50 for his designs for an ‘Institute for the Study, Practice, and Performance of Music’. In the same year, in company with some artist friends, he set out on a tour of eighteen months through France, Germany, Greece, Constantinople, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. His companions worked in water-colours, and Spiers was led to follow their example. He became, in fact, very expert, and was well known for his drawings of architecture in colour, which for many years were sold at good prices. He always felt, however, that his professional pursuits prevented him from keeping up with the artistic and technical advance of water-colour painting.
On his return from abroad in 1866 Spiers assisted William Burges [q.v.] in his mediaeval design (which was not accepted) for the new Law Courts in the Strand; in conjunction with Charles John Phipps [q.v.] he submitted a modern French design for the war memorial church of the Sacré Cœur at Montmartre; and with Professor Robert Kerr [q.v.] he competed in a design for the Criterion restaurant and theatre in Piccadilly; he also assisted in designing and building the synagogue in Seymour Street, Edgware Road.
Spiers's executed works are not numerous. They include additions to Umberslade Hall, Warwickshire; restorations of the churches of Hampton Poyle and Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire; a house on Chelsea Embankment for Lord
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