Enid Hamilton-Fellows

Hamilton-Fellows was born in London, in 1904. She was a member of a prominent family who owned the Imperial Tobacco Company, the daughter of Margaret Wills Hamilton-Fellowes and Ernest Gadesden Fellows. She was the granddaughter of Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet. Her grandfather was the first director of Imperial Tobacco, and had amassed enormous wealth during his life, passing the fortune down to her mother. Her mother's famous friends gathered often at the family home and Hamilton-Fellows learned much from them, including Naomi Royde-Smith, who taught Hamilton-Fellows many lessons in writing and painting. == Marriage to George Hay, the Earl of Kinnoull (1923–1927) ==

She obtained the title of the Countess of Kinnoull in the Scottish courts and the Scottish heraldry when she and George Hay were married on 15 December 1923. Her married name became Enid Margaret Hamlyn Hay-Drummond. When they were first married, the British called her "the baby countess". She became a notable figure in high society during her early married life. She gained attention in the press for her adventurous character and diverse abilities, which were unusual for women of her time. She learned to fly airplanes, drive and repair automobiles, and participated in motor racing, often even receiving fines for speeding outside of the racecourse. One account has her flying her own aircraft to see the judge after such a speeding infraction. In addition to her technical skills, she cultivated artistic interests, including painting and writing. Her family's tobacco wealth facilitated some of these pursuits, but her willingness to take risks and develop skills in traditionally male domains contributed to her reputation as both an adventurer and an artist. They had a son, Henry George Adam Hay, the Viscount Dupplin, born on 23 November 1924, but he died at only four months old, on 7 March 1925. Their marriage soon faced difficulties, in part due to financial pressures on the Kinnoull family estate, Balhousie Castle in Perthshire. The estate, heavily encumbered by debt, was eventually sold and the furnishings were auctioned to meet creditors' demands. Despite her desire to renounce the title, Hamilton-Fellows was nevertheless retained her title by the Peerage of Scotland, remaining the Countess of Kinnoull, and for decades afterwards there were two women who simultaneously held the title. == Conversion to Catholicism and Catholic activities (1927–1936) ==

After leaving Britain in 1927, the Countess settled in Paris, choosing to live near the Church of Saint-Augustin. The area was a prosperous and solidly bourgeois neighborhood, and here she managed a comfortable, elite Parisian lifestyle. Around this time, she began to attend Parisian café gatherings, spaces where intellectual and political discussions were common. During her Catholic confirmation, she took the Catholic name "Claude Kinnoull", after the Catholic saint Claude La Colombière. Simultaneously to their mission, another mission, not related to the Church, had embarked to Asia, going by the name of La Croisére Jaune. The journey, completed on 24 January 1932, covered 37,526 kilometers, then considered a world record for distance travelled by automobile. Their vehicle was specially equipped with six low-pressure tires, a six-cylinder engine, and additional tanks carrying 300 litres of fuel and 100 litres of water. The expedition had a missionary character, with visits to 126 centres and the establishment of six new missions. De Moor also produced a feature-length film of the journey, titled Le Croisière bleue. Due to the technical knowledge she had acquired years earlier, she served as the primary driver of the vehicle, handled mechanical repairs and ensured the journey could continue despite the challenges of terrain and climate. At the time, her capacity to manage such a technically demanding role was considered exceptional, particularly for a woman of her social background. The stated objective of the Croisière Bleue was to visit Catholic missions scattered across the continent. At each stop, the travelers provided assistance by transporting missionaries, facilitating transfers between posts and delivering supplies, food, medicine and religious materials, especially Bibles and copies of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In total, they visited over a hundred mission centres and supported the establishment of new ones. The mission-oriented nature of the expedition underscored the deepening of the countess's commitment to Catholicism, linking her more closely to networks of European clergy and religious workers stationed in Africa. In 1933, Vincent de Moor was appointed head of the , a position made possible through the continued financial and personal support of the Countess of Kinnoull. After completing the African mission, Hamilton-Fellows returned to Paris. There, she joined the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and established a hospice for terminally ill women on . She also frequented the Café Le Select, a meeting place for writers and intellectuals, where she often entertained her close friend Léon de Poncins. During this period, she also formed a friendship with the Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga, who offered her painting instructions in his Montparnasse studio. Later, she continued her studies on painting with Zuloaga in Spain. == Press photographer during the Spanish Civil War ==

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Vincent de Moor traveled to Spain, in support of the Francoist side. Most of her photographs have been archived in the Museum of the Claretians. Following the conflict, the countess returned briefly to Paris, where she connected with the British Secret Services and the Deuxième Bureau, attempting to resist the Nazi invasion of France and also expose Communist agents operating in France. However, nearly immediately, she was placed on a list of highly valued targets by the Germans and she used her connections to obtain an asylum visa to the United States. However, she continued to financially support the French Resistance from exile. == Move to California ==

In 1940, Hamilton-Fellows moved to the town of Carmel, California. In 1948, she purchased a large home, today known as The Hess Home, on the hilltop corner of Torres Street and 11th Avenue. This was a Spanish eclectic style stucco house that was built in 1925 for Colonel Henry L. Watson. She resided there for the remainder of her life. Throughout the years, she maintained close contact with Vincent de Moor, who after the war was again engaged in intelligence activities focused on German operations along the French coast. In California, she arranged a base of support for him in Carmel, which he used to travel between Europe and the United States. Vincent de Moor died in New York in 1961, at the age of 73. In 1955, she became involved with Gaspard Weiss, Remsen Bird, Dwight Morrow Jr., Noël Sullivan, and others in establishing the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies (MIFS). She served on the Board of Trustees for the Institute and was involved in financially supporting the institute until she died. In the 1960s, she established a scholarship at the institute for graduating high school students to attend MIFS called the Countess of Kinnoull Scholarship. In 1956, her gallery exhibit The Mysteries of the Rosary was shown at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, and later was shown at the De Saisset Gallery at the Santa Clara University. Her own dog at the time was named Reme, but she had earlier owned a poodle named Ali Baba. == Written works ==

• Come Home Traveller, written under the name Claude Kinnoull, was published by John Miles Ltd. == References ==