Duchess who was Formerly in Chorus

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 992, 7 June 1930, Page 20

Duchess who was Formerly in Chorus

Vicissitudes of Ex-Actress who Married Duke of Leinster Husbands Gifts of Monkeys and Snakes! i

YSTERIOUS happenings lUfiMawh iu a tidy fiat at Brixton. , imWjjMy which led to a duchess being conveyed to liospica Jn.Ul tal suffering from gaspoisoning, have once again thrown the glare of publicity upon the chequered and romantic life story of a former Gaiety girt. This woman, whose career reads like a. novel, was found—as cable messages have already told us—unconscious in the early hours of the morning in the kitchen of her comparatively humble home, and she is now- making a good recovery from the effects of her startling misadventure. In the heyday of her stage fame thousands envied the beautiful girl when she was wooed and won in a lightning courtship by the dashing young scion of nobility who was destined to become the premier duke, marquess and earl of Ireland. From the glamour of footlights and the whirl of society, the ex-actress duchess retired to the obscurity of private life on moderate means, and, but for the episode which imperilled her life, she would have been forgotten by the survivors of a generation which had paid homage to her talents and beauty. When an elderly woman, who gave the name of Mrs. Etheridge, engaged a flat at Benedict Road, Brixton, on behalf of a couple whom she called "Mr. and Mrs. AVilliams,” it was intimated that they only wanted accommodation for a month as they were leaving then to take a cottage at Birchington-on-Sea, Thanet. The landlady little dreamed at that moment that one of her new tenants was the Duchess of Leinster. The other person who came to the apartment was Mr. Stanley AVilliams, 26, chef, who hails from Middlesbrough, A’orkshire. Subsequent events are already known to newspaper readers!. At the Police Court, following the duchess's appearance on a charge of attempted suicide, Williams revealed lhat there had been a little difference

of opinion between himself and the duchess over a portable wireless set. He wanted to listen to Paris, and the duchess wanted to listen to 2LO. Eventually he had his way because, although she had paid for the set, it was in his name. “About midnight, however,” stated Williams, “the duchess became furious—more furious than f had ever seen her —and said. ■Tomorrow I will have this set placed in my name —I am paying for it ind I am going to listen to the stations I want to hear.’ I laughed, and said she could do what she liked.” He then told her he was going back to IJytlie. Then she became very angry.

Later he called in the police. The flat, he declared, seemed to be full of gas, and the policeman told him to open all the windows at once. Then they entered the kitchen and dragged the duchess out into the sittingr o o m unconscious. More police and a doctor arrived, but meanwhile they had tried to bring her round by artificial respiration and throwing cold water

on her neck. The doctor told him it had been touch and go. Williams added that he met the duchess at Hythe last October. He used to be a chef at the Duke of York’s camp. Romance and vicissitude such as few women have encountered have entered into the career of May Etheridge. Born at Brixton 3S years ago, she attended school until, at the age of 13, ambition for fame on the stage was kindled by her securing a part in “The New Aladdin.”

After obtaining training in singing and dancing she was eventually engaged by Mr. Robert Courtneidge, appeared at the Gaiety as a chorus girl and was given a. part in “The Mousme.” The year before the war came the turning-point in her career. The absence of M iss _ Cicely Courtneidge from the cast "of “Princess Caprice” at the Shaftesbury Theatre gave her the chance to play a good part. There she met Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a younger son of the Duke of Leinster, and they fell in love. She was offered a three years’ theatrical contract, but refused this and became secretly engaged to Lord Edward. The news leaked out prematurely and 13 days afterward Lord Edward stated that the announcement was unauthorised sfnd incorrect. A few days later after a lightning courtship they were secretly married at the Wandsworth Registrar's Office.

In. 1914 a son, Gerald, now- the Marquess of Kildare, was born. The Duke served in the Great War in the Irish Guards and was wounded five times, and. his wife returned to the stage in “Watch Your Step.” Then, in February, 1922, the sixth Duke of Leinster died and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose elder brother had been killed a few years earlier in an accident, became the seventh duke and premier duke, marquess and earl of Ireland.

In 1918 he had sold his reversionary interest in the Leinster estates to Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley for £67,000, Sir Harry agreeing to pay him an annuity of £I,OOO. Financial diffi-

culties came and there was a bankruptcy.

“We grew hard up,” the duchess stated, in telling of their troubles later, “and I suggested that my hus-

band should come to live with me at my mother’s home in Brixton. He agreed, and mother toiled without stint to keep things going. My husband later went to India and when he returned we separated.” The Duchess handed her son over to the Duke’s family so that he might be educated and be brought up in a manner suitable to his position. - In 1923 the Duchess, when living at Bournemouth, announced that she was looking for work, and was “compelled to live a miserable existence on an allowance of £9 12s 4d a week.”

A quaint story is told of the early married days of the Duke and Duchess. Just before the birth of Lord Kildare the Duke went into a shop in Waterloo Road and purchased about a dozen monkeys. These were taken to the house of the mother of the Duchess in Brixton. where the pair lived from time to time.

“It was terrible,” remarked the Duchess when telling the story of what happened there. “There was no other place for them, so they were housed in the bathroom, with the result that nobody dared go into the place.” On another occasion the Duke brought home a number of snakes, and for weeks the Duchess was almost afraid to go into her home on account of these reptiles slithering about all over the place. Once she found one in her bed and on another occasion she trod on one. The Duke of Leinster has had an adventurous life and for his exploits was nicknamed the “Daredevil Duke.” Once he dashed by motor-car from London to Aberdeen for a £3,000 wager and claimed to have done the trip in 14i hours —half an hour loss than, the time allowed him.