Rose Buckingham Selfridge

Rosalie Amelia Selfridge was a property developer before becoming the wife of department store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge. A member of the wealthy Buckingham family of Chicago, she inherited a large amount of property. Well educated, she had traveled extensively by the time she met Harry Selfridge in the late 1880s. After they were married, the couple remained in Chicago and Rose enjoyed society and the company of her family. Later, they moved to London when Harry built his new department store on Oxford Street. During World War I, she operated their Dorset estate as a convalescent hospital. Rose died during the Spanish flu pandemic.