A personal admission
I have been haunted by the image of a small biplane being dismantled on a quay while its passengers laugh at the wind. That scene is the fingerprint of a life I cannot stop following: the life of Violette De Sibour. I write as someone who has stitched together dates, names, and artifacts into a story that feels like a weathered passport. She was born into wealth, yes, but she converted that inheritance into voyages, sentences, and an appetite for altitude.
Family roots and inherited wings
Harry Gordon Selfridge started it. He raised Violette in London drawing rooms and Chicago society while building a retail empire. Violette used the family name on shopfronts and invoices as a baseline. Family fortunes buy time and training. Freedom to fly was also gained.
Family trees unfold like maps. Her maternal ancestors included Benjamin Hale Buckingham and Martha Euretta Potwin. Robert Oliver Selfridge is among the elder leaves on the paternal branch. I do not find these genealogical entries dry. The quiet ledger of money and expectations explains why a deserted hangar might feel like a parlor to someone raised on velvet seats.
Selfridges counted. I say the name since the store made the Selfridge family name famous in the 20th century. Violette carried Selfridges’ elegance into the present age.
Marriage, partnership, and the sky as a playground
In 1921 she married a man who would become her co-conspirator in motion: Vicomte Jacques J. De Sibour. They were a pair who treated the globe as a salon table to be rearranged. Together they learned to coax a Gipsy Moth across continents. Together they fed it fuel and affection and, in 1928, set out on a long multi-leg journey that reads like a 1920s travelogue spun into an aviation manifesto.
They did not merely log miles. They disassembled aircraft, booked ocean passages for cradles of wings, and wrote down what the sun felt like over different latitudes. Those practical details reveal their resourcefulness: shipping manifests, steamer schedules, and the patience to reassemble a plane on a cliff in a country whose language they did not yet speak.
Children and the continuing story
Family history was continued by the De Sibour children. Jacques Blaise De Sibour, their son, appears on alumni and memorial pages. The numerical next heir to titles and stories was Jacques Blaise De Sibour. Their daughter, Jacqueline, worked onstage under a different name. Press clippings and marriage notices feature Jacqueline De Sibour.
Many readers will recognize Jacqueline once she married the actor and raconteur. Jackie’s later partner was Orson Bean. Their next-generation child is Michelle or Michele. Michele Bean brings a theatrical touch to De Sibour.
Career, voice, and the book that keeps the plane airborne
Violette was not content to be a name in a ledger. She became an author. In 1930 she published a travel memoir titled Flying Gypsies that reads like a stitched map of small crises and immense afternoons. I have read passages that smell of benzine and lemon cake; other passages read like weather reports penned by someone who prefers the cold clarity of altitude.
Her achievement was both literal and cultural. She flew thousands of miles. She wrote about those miles. Those two acts combined to create a kind of currency no bank could print: the currency of lived adventure. She embraced measurements in neat increments: 10,000 miles of travel, 1928 for the pivotal flight, 1930 for the book that made the flight public. I like numbers because they keep the imagination honest.
Timeline table
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1897 | Birth of Violette Buckingham Selfridge |
| 1921 | Marriage to Jacques de Sibour |
| 1928 | Around-the-world style flight in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth |
| 1930 | Publication of Flying Gypsies |
| 1949 | Divorce proceedings recorded in public notices for the family |
What the family portraits reveal
Family photos record dress and posture. I look at Violette wearing a hat that covers more than hair. She and Jacques stand near a fragile jet like a last-minute tryst. That snapshot shows me that privilege and curiosity often coexisted in one person, unlike a museum label.
Her family members were engines in their own ways. Harry, the founder, drove business. A little internal combustion engine, Jacques, made the plane hum. The children became models for new fuels and highways.
FAQ
Who was Violette De Sibour
I am describing her as an aviator and author born into the Selfridge-Buckingham family in 1897 who married Jacques de Sibour in 1921 and who, together with him, undertook a celebrated long-distance flight in 1928.
What were Violette’s major achievements
She piloted long-distance flights with her husband, logged over 10,000 miles in adventurous legs, and published a travel memoir in 1930 that documented the voyage and the sensibility of interwar aviation.
What is the Selfridge connection
Her father, Harry Gordon Selfridge, founded a major department store that transformed modern retail. The family’s wealth and social reach provided Violette with the means to pursue aviation and travel extensively.
Who were her children
Her children included Jacques Blaise De Sibour and Jacqueline, who later used the stage name Rain Winslow. The family continued into later generations that intersected with artistic and public lives.
Did Violette write a book
Yes. In 1930 she published a memoir called Flying Gypsies that recounts the 1928 expedition and other air adventures.
Are there surviving images of Violette and the flights
Yes. Photographs show the couple, the plane, and the logistics of disassembling and shipping a Gipsy Moth. They read like a travel album that a museum curator might covet.
