Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster was born on April 10, 1835 in Forfar, Scotland. Her parents, James Hawkins and Charlotte Soper-Dempster of Skibo, were cousins. Dempster spent her childhood in Scotland, often traveling with her mother to Saint Andrews. After her father’s death in 1841, Dempster and her siblings were adopted by their maternal uncle, George Dempster of Skibo, who took on the responsibility for their education. Because she was troubled by the cold, Dempster spent several winters abroad in Nice (1864-1865), Paris, and Rome (1866-1867). During her adult life, Dempster traveled extensively around Europe.

Dempster published her first novel, The Hôtel du Petit St. Jean: a Gascon Story, in 1869. Her books were widely read as popular novels, and one, Véra, was even translated into Russian. Her last work, The Manners of My Time, an autobiography that drew heavily on transcriptions of letters she had written to her uncle, was edited and published after her death by her goddaughter, Alice Knox. In addition to her ten books, Dempster was a contributor to the Edinburgh Review, the North British Review, Blackwood’s Magazine, and other periodicals.

Dempster never married, and in 1880, she and her sister Helen settled permanently in a villa in Cannes, France, and continued to visit their uncle in England and Scotland during the summers. In 1891, Dempster joined the Roman Catholic Church and helped build the Chapel of St. Charles des Carrières, a small church near Cannes for quarrymen living in the neighborhood. Dempster died in Cannes on May 8, 1913.

Sources:

Dempster, Charlotte Louisa Hawkins. The Manners of My Time. Ed. Alice Knox. London: Grant Richards, Ltd., 1920.