Stanley was born on 6 January 1877 in
Westminster, Greater London, to peer
Thomas Taylour, the 3rd Marquess of Headfort, and his wife Emila Costantia Taylour, daughter of Rev.
Lord John Thynne and granddaughter of
Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath. Her brother
Geoffrey Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort, succeeded their father as Marquess in 1894. On 26 November 1903, at the age of 26, she married soldier and politician
George Stanley, and they had a daughter, Barbara Helen Stanley (1906-1986), three years later. Stanley and an infant Barbara starred on the cover of
Country Life magazine in July 1907. On 26 October 1929, Stanley's husband was appointed governor of
Madras in the
British Raj. Stanley's body of watercolour work was created during her residency in India, in
Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, where she developed the gardens around their official residence. She studied the plants and gardening practises in the local climate with local fauna, as well as British plants which had been imported. The family returned to the UK in 1934. Stanley also wrote about
horticulture, including the article “Gardening in India,” published in the 23 May 1931 edition of
The Gardener’s Chronicle. Stanley was appointed to the
Order of the Crown of India. She was made
CBE in the
New Years Honours of 1920, for services to horticulture. In 1938, Stanley's husband died. Stanley herself died six years later on 3 May 1944 at their family home of Sibbertoft Manor,
Market Harborough, after a long illness. She was aged 67. == Legacy ==