CAMPAIGN COLOSSUS AND THE PARTY GIRL

Ishbel, the Marchioness of Aberdeen, and 27-year-old Edie Campbell, her first cousin, four times removed.

LADY Aberdeen was a colossal figure of the women’s movement. The third daughter of the 1st Baron Tweedmouth, her tutors picked up on her intellect and wanted her parents to send her to university.

Her father, however, shared the widely held opinion that university was no place for a woman.

Attending her parents’ social events allowed Ishbel to meet the famous politicians of the day and sparked her interest in politics and women’s rights.

In 1877, she married John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, the 7th Earl of Aberdeen, and the couple became famous for their altruism. Lady Aberdeen organised literacy classes for her servants while campaigning for women’s education, health, better housing, jobs and pay.

As head of the Women’s Liberal Federation, she preferred the less confrontational wing of the women’s suffrage movement. A mother-of-five, she only resigned her post a few days before she died in 1939, at the age of 82.

Almost 80 years on, model Edie Campbell (she is descended on her father’s side from Florence Hogg, her father’s great-greatgrandmother, while Lady Aberdeen was Florence’s niece) made headlines last year, along with her sister Olympia and father Roddy (himself dressed as a Bunny Girl), at a louche Absolute Filth themed birthday party.

Edie was dressed in red boots and knickers with ‘FILTH’ written across her bare chest. She has been model of the year, the face of yves Saint Laurent Black Opium perfume and appeared on German, Italian, Chinese, French and British Vogue covers.

She has recently spoken up, in an open letter and an interview, about sexual harassment in fashion.