Helen Beresford, Baroness Decies

Helen Vivien Gould, married Lady Helen Beresford, Baroness Decies ( born January 1, 1893 in New York City; † February 3, 1931 in London) was an American heiress and member of the New York and London high society.

Life

Helen Vivien Gould was the eldest daughter of the President of the Western Pacific Railroad George Jay Gould I. Her mother was before marriage a well-known theater actress, her older brother Jay Gould II successful tennis players.

Gould was educated at home by governesses and tutors with the help of her father's library. She then graduated from the exclusive girls college Brearley School in Classical literature, philosophy and mathematics.

In her holidays, she often accompanied her parents on their travels in Europe, where she also her future husband, the Irish aristocrat and politician John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies ( 1866-1944), came to know. They married on February 7, 1911 in the St. Bartholomew's Church in New York. The wedding of the daughter of well-known entrepreneur with 27 years older foreigners attracted great attention, Beresford received threatening letters and demands a duel. On the wedding day, the police closed off the entire block to keep thousands of onlookers from the ceremony. After a trip to Egypt involved the pair Manchester House, London. Together they had three children.

Gould was a member of the inner circle of friends of the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VIII. Together with her husband she accompanied him on his journeys, including to America and on big game safari in East Africa. On one of her journeys in the Mediterranean Lady Decies ill with jaundice and died at the age of 38 years from the effects of an anesthesia error during the operation in which the diseased gallbladder should be removed surgically.

Their remains were buried on the family property.