Euretta de Cosson Rathbone

Euretta de Cosson Rathbone
Portrait by Max Beckmann, 1947[1]
Born
Euretta Cecilia de Cosson

1909 (1909)
Cairo, Egypt
Died2003 (aged 93–94)
Known forCaptain of the British women's ski team
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1945)​
FatherClaude Augustin de Cosson
RelativesCharles Alexander de Cosson (grandfather)

Euretta Cecilia de Cosson Rathbone (died 2003) was a British champion ski racer and a patron of the arts.[2] Rettles, as she was known, was born in Cairo, Egypt to the British head of Egypt's public works Claude Augustin de Cosson and Euretta Kirkbride, a Philadelphian descendant of a long line of Philadelphia Quakers and Industrialists.[2][3][4] Her grandfather was Charles Alexander, Baron de Cosson (1846–1929), a scholar and collector of arms and armour who was among the leading English authorities on the subject in his time.[5] Her father's family were French nobility from Bourg in the Gironde who emigrated to England during the French Revolution.[5] An ancestor, François Honoré de Cosson, seigneur de Nodeau et d'Esconges, was condemned to death as a counter-revolutionary on 28 Prairial Year II (16 June 1794) by the military commission at Bordeaux during the Reign of Terror and guillotined.[6][7]

She took up skiing while in finishing school in Switzerland. She became captain of the British ski team and won several events, but never competed in the olympics as they were cancelled due to World War II.[2] She won a combined event in 1939.[8] She suffered a concussion in competition on Baldy Mountain in 1941.[9]

She married art museum director Perry T. Rathbone in 1945.[2][10][11] She died in 2003 after being hit by a bus. She had three children and seven grandchildren.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Euretta Rathbone". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Globe, Boston (20 March 2003). "Euretta de Cosson Rathbone -- ski champion of '30s". SFGate.
  3. ↑ "Clipped From St. Louis Post-Dispatch". 11 February 1945. p. 46 – via newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Bement and Dougherty Industrial Works, Machinists' Tools". Wikimedia Commons.
  5. 1 2 "Charles Alexander, Baron de Cosson, Papers". Royal Armouries. Charles Alexander, Baron de Cosson came from a French family who had suffered greatly during the French Revolution, and emigrated to England.
  6. ↑ Prudhomme, Louis-Marie (1796–1797). Dictionnaire des individus envoyés à la mort judiciairement, révolutionnairement et contre-révolutionnairement pendant la Révolution. Vol. 1. Paris. p. 247. Cosson (Franç.), ex-noble, né et dom. à Bourg, dép. de la Gironde, cond. à mort comme contr.-révol., le 28 prair. an 2, par la com. milit. séante à Bordeaux.
  7. ↑ "Charles Anthony de Cosson Obituary". Dignity Memorial. A notable ancestor was the Chevalier Honoré Francois de Cosson, guillotined in 1794.
  8. ↑ "The Ski Bulletin". Alfred B. Moorhouse, pub. 16 October 1939 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ "Collier's: Incorporating Features of the American Magazine". Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. 16 January 1941 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ "EURETTA DE COSSON ENGAGED TO MARRY; She Will Become Bride of Lieut. Perry T. Rathbone of Navy". 18 June 1943 – via NYTimes.com.
  11. ↑ The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. J. T. White. 1981 – via Internet Archive. Euretta de Cosson.