Constance Fletcher was born in
Derby in 1886, the eldest child and only daughter of George and Henrietta Maria (née Dutton) Fletcher. After studying
hygiene,
physiology and
district nursing in Ireland, she lectured on first aid and
home care for the newly established
Irish Women's National Health Association. She married James Heppell Marr in 1910 and moved to Coolbawn, near
Castlecomer. In 1912, their son Anthony Heppel Marr was born. World War I had a profound impact on Constance Marr, and the Fletcher family. After the beginning of the war in 1914, Constance Marr was appointed secretary of the
Dublin Red Cross. In 1916, she left both Ireland and her husband, escaping a violent marriage, and moved to
Barrow-in-Furness with her son Anthony to work as a welfare supervisor. In 1917, she joined the civil service as the head of women's staff (welfare and medical treatment) at the
Ministry of Aircraft Production. The same year, two of her brothers – Lieutenant Arnold Lockhart Fletcher and Second Lieutenant Donald Lockhart Fletcher – were killed in action, on 30 and 28 April 1917 respectively. After these losses, her mother
did not speak for two years. In 1921, she was appointed
headmistress of the Homerton and South Hackney Day Continuation School in
Homerton, east London, where she instructed teenage factory workers in cookery and dressmaking, and later
flower arranging. In 1926, she married her second husband, Henry Ernest Spry. Spry gave up teaching in 1928, to open her first shop, "Flower Decoration", in 1929. After securing a regular order from
Granada Cinemas, she caused a sensation in fashionable society by creating an exquisite arrangement of
hedgerow flowers in the windows of
Atkinsons, an
Old Bond Street perfumery in the
West End of London, as part of the decoration undertaken by the theatrical designer
Norman Wilkinson. When she opened a larger shop in
South Audley Street in
Mayfair in 1934, Spry was already employing seventy people. In the same year, she published her first book,
Flower Decoration, and established the "Constance Spry Flower School" at her new premises. During this period she hired the Australian
Patricia Easterbrook Roberts, who later opened the Roberts School of Dramatic Floriculture in Detroit, Michigan. In 2012
English Heritage marked Spry's tenure at 64 South Audley Street with a
blue plaque. Her company created the flower arrangements for two
royal weddings: the
November 1935 nuptials of the
Duke of Gloucester to
Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott, held in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace, and the more private wedding of the
Duke and
Duchess of Windsor in June 1937. Public interest from these commissions led to two tours of the US. Later, she arranged the flowers for the
wedding of Princess Elizabeth and for
that of Princess Margaret. When World War II began in 1939, Spry resumed her teaching career and lectured to women all over Britain. In 1942, she published
Come into The Garden, Cook, based around
French cuisine, hoping to help the war effort by encouraging the British to
grow and eat their own food. Her company continued to provide floral decorations at weddings. She was appointed an OBE in the
1953 Coronation Honours. At Winkfield Place, Spry devoted years to the cultivation of particular varieties of antique roses, which she was instrumental in bringing back into fashion;
David Austin's
first rose introduction, in 1961, was named after her and is considered to be the foundation of his "English rose" series. In 1956, she and Hume published the best-selling
Constance Spry Cookery Book, thereby extending the Spry style from flowers to food. On 3 January 1960, she slipped on the stairs at Winkfield Place and died an hour later. Her last words were supposedly, "Someone else can arrange this". ==Legacy==