Mrs George de Horne Vaizey (Jessie Mansergh)
1856 - 1917
Born Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Jessie Bell had four brothers and two sisters. In 1883 she married Henry Mansergh.Their only daughter, Gwyneth Alice, was born in 1886. They moved several times but remained in the Liverpool area. Mansergh appears to have been either an alcoholic or addicted to drugs, he died of kidney disease in May 1894.

Jessie's short stories began to appear in magazines in 1894. Her daughter (then about 12) found an unpublished manuscript in a drawer and sent it in to a short story competition & won a Mediterranean cruise. Jessie met George de Horne Vaizey on the cruise. She married him in 1898 & they moved to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. A son George, later to become a well-known writer was born in 1900. She contracted typhoid, then developed Rheumatoid arthritis, and was wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life but she still continued to write. She died in Hampstead following an operation for appendicitis.

Jessie wrote 33 books, numerous short stories and magazine articles. She often used her own varied experiences in her books. Her life in a large family then her first husband's addiction and death and her own illnesses were all used in her novels.