Sheila Chisholm
Sheila Chisholm | |
---|---|
Lady Loughborough Lady Milbanke Princess Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia | |
Born | Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm 9 September 1895 Wollogorang, New South Wales, Australia |
Died | 13 October 1969 London, England | (aged 74)
Burial | Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland |
Spouse | Francis St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough (divorced) Sir John Charles Peniston Milbanke, 11th Bt (divorced) Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia (m. 1954) |
Issue | Anthony St Clair-Erskine, 6th Earl of Rosslyn |
Father | Harry Chisholm |
Mother | Margaret Mackellar |
Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm (9 September 1895 – 13 October 1969) was an Australian socialite and "
Known for her striking beauty, she is likely the inspiration for the Australian phrase "a good-looking sheila".[1]
Family and early years
Sheila Chisholm was born on 9 September 1895 on the family property "Wollogorang", the centre of the locality now called
Adult life
In 1914, Chisholm and her mother sailed to England on SS Mongolia.[8] They planned to spend months in Europe, but their trip was extended by the onset of the First World War, making the long journey back to Australia too dangerous.[8]
Chisholm and her mother travelled to Cairo where one of her brothers was stationed with an Australian cavalry regiment.[9] In Cairo, Chisholm met the first of her three husbands, Lord Loughborough.[9] Loughborough was a compulsive gambler, later immortalised as 'the Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo'.[9] The couple had two sons together.[8] Their elder son, Anthony, succeeded his father as Earl of Rosslyn. Their younger son, Peter, a Royal Air Force pilot, was killed on active service in September 1939 in the first weeks of the Second World War.
At the end of 1918, Chisholm met Bertie, the future George VI.[10] Bertie's older brother, Edward, Prince of Wales, had fallen in love with her best friend, Freda Dudley Ward.[10] They called themselves The Four Do's.[10] In April 1920, Bertie ended his relationship with the still married Chisholm in return for a dukedom awarded by his father.[10]
Chisholm dated Italian-American actor Rudolph Valentino, who gave her his "lucky bracelet". He died six months later (August 1926), causing Chisholm to think it was because she had taken his luck.
In 1928, she married
She inspired British author Evelyn Waugh to write his celebrated 1948 novel The Loved One.[12]
In 1954, she married for the third and final time, to Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia who was living in exile in London.
Death and legacy
Chisholm is buried at Rosslyn Chapel in the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.[8] Her son commissioned a stained glass window of St Francis of Assisi surrounded by animals which can be seen in the chapel’s baptistry.[8] In a nod to Chisholm's Australian heritage, there is a kangaroo in the bottom left hand corner of the window.[8]
Chisholm had fallen into obscurity by the time of her death and was almost completely forgotten until the publication of journalist Robert Wainwright's 2014 biography Sheila: The Australian Beauty Who Bewitched British Society.[1]
References
- ^ a b "A Sheila who captured London's heart" (28 February 2014), SBS. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
- ^ a b Wainwright 2014, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Wainwright 2014, p. 4.
- ^ Wainwright 2014, p. 12.
- ^ Wainwright 2014, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Wainwright 2014, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Wainwright 2014, p. 8.
- ^ a b c d e f Walker, Ruth (1 February 2014). "Remarkable journey of Margaret Sheila Mackellar". The Scotsman. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
- ^ a b c "Australia's entrancing Sheila". The Spectator. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ a b c d McGinness, Mark (28 February 2014). "Hitting it off with the toffs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ "Madame Yevonde's Goddesses - in pictures". The Guardian. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ Simpson 1993.
Bibliography
Books
- Wainwright, Robert Wainright (2014). Sheila: The Australian Beauty Who Bewitched British Society. ISBN 9781743311318.
Webpages
- Simpson, Caroline (1993). "Chisholm, Margaret Sheila". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
External links
- Biographer Robert Wainwright discusses Sheila Chisholm on "Conversations" with Richard Fidler, ABC Local Radio