Born at
Gosforth House, Northumberland on 20 November 1862, Virginia Mary Smith, sixth child of
Thomas Eustace Smith, a
Liberal politician and shipowner and Martha Mary Dalrymple (also known as Ellen). She had five sisters and four brothers. but she is known for naming
Sir Charles Dilke, another Liberal politician, as her lover, from 1882 for two years or more, in the divorce case brought against her and Dilke by her husband, a year after their marriage in 1885. and thus succeeded in the divorce. The subsequent scandal caused the political downfall of Dilke, and her parents' social standing was diminished: it was hinted that Dilke had had an earlier affair with Ellen Smith, Dilke's brother's mother-in-law, and other lurid claims were revealed, when Dilke tried unsuccessfully to clear himself). Novelists
Thomas Hardy and
Henry James, close to both families and their circle, were said to have drawn on this scandal in their fiction. Crawford was able to move on from her perceived roles (victim or
femme fatale). She "survived the scandal and carved out another plot for herself, one that included a public life as both author and activist." an enemy of Dilke, and editor of
Pall Mall Gazette. It started up a writing career, and she assisted research for other authors, such as Irish author George Moore, Crawford wrote over 130 articles and many books on themes from Italian art, such as
Raphael and
Fra Angelico, to French and Belgian and other European literature, such as
Maeterlinck and
D'Annunzio. Her literary writings were re-published as recently as 2010, as well as those on women's rights in the workplace and on social issues, with Crawford's
Ideals of Charity also republished in 2010. Crawford wrote regularly for publications such as ''Littell's Living Age,
Dublin Review,
Contemporary Review and co-wrote religious publications as well as articles in the Month, a Catholic magazine
and Catholic World.'' == Role in feminist and suffrage movements ==