One of the great sporting characters of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, Mary du Caurroy Tribe, 11th Duchess of Bedford, was not only considered to be the top lady Shot of her day and one of the 12 best game Shots in Great Britain in the 1920s, but was also an accomplished angler and skater.
She was a proficient aeroplane pilot, too, whose pioneering aviation activities earned her the title the Flying Duchess, while her numerous other interests included ornithology, medicine and nursing — she opened her own private cottage hospital on the family estate at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire for the benefit of locals.
