Lady Georgiana Mary Curzon Kidston, Lady Starkey (7 January 1910 – 11 January 1976) was an English socialite, included in The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton.
Lady Starkey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hon. Georgiana Mary Curzon 7 January 1910 Mayfair, London, England |
| Died | 11 January 1976 (aged 66) The Retreat, York, England |
| Spouse(s) |
Lord Lewis Stanton Starkey
(m. 1957; died 1975) |
| Children | Glen Kidston |
| Parent(s) | Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe Mary Curzon, Lady Howe |
| Relatives | Richard Curzon, 4th Earl Howe (grandfather) Montagu Curzon (grandfather) |
Early life
editLady Georgiana Mary Curzon was born in 1910 at Curzon House (21 Curzon Street), Mayfair,[1][2] the daughter of Viscount Howe (later 5th Earl Howe) and Mary, Viscountess Howe, first cousins who married in 1907 and divorced in 1937. Her older brother was Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.[3]
Her paternal grandparents were Richard Curzon, 4th Earl Howe and, his first wife, Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill (fifth daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough and Lady Frances Vane).[4][5] Her mother was the only daughter of Esmé FitzRoy and Col. Montagu Curzon (the eldest son, by his second wife, of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe).[6]
Career
editIn the 1930s Lady Georgiana Curzon modelled for Pond's[7] and Copley's.[8]
In 1933, Lady Georgiana Curzon, Miss Deirdre Hart-Davis, the Lady Anne Wellesley and Miss Nancy Beaton were photographed together for The Book of Beauty of Cecil Beaton.[9]
Personal life
editIn 1934, she met war-time hero Roger Bushell and they fell in love.[10] Curzon's father did not approve and forced her to marry the son of a family friend.[11] In November 1935, Georgiana Curzon married Home Ronald Archibald Kidston.[2][12] Before their divorce in 1943, they had one son:
- Glen Kidston (1937–2018), who was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.[2][13]
The marriage was unhappy, Kidston apparently admitted adultery with Curzon's stepmother, and they eventually divorced in 1943. Bushell never forgot Curzon and it has been said that he was telling his fellow prisoners that "Georgie" was his true love and that he would one day marry her. Unfortunately, Bushell was killed by the Gestapo in 1944, his story life recounted in The Great Escape, in which his role is played by Richard Attenborough. For years after his death, Curzon placed an "In Memoriam" advertisement in The Times on his birthday signing "Love is Immortal, Georgie".[11] Words in similar vein are referred to in an article[14] in The Times in 2013, by Simon Pearson, about Bushell's lovers. He remarked that he had some years before, while working at The Times, come:
. . . across a memorial notice in the archive, which marked the anniversary of Roger Bushell's birth and celebrated his life. It quoted Rupert Brooke: "He leaves a white unbroken glory, a gathered radiance, a width, a shining peace, under the night." It was signed "Georgie".
On 1 November 1957 she married Lord Lewis Stanton Starkey (1906–1975),[2] a son of Lt.-Col. Lewis Edward Starkey and Mary Kathleen Starkey. Lord Starkey was previously married to Clare Désirée Blow (daughter of architect Detmar Jellings Blow).[12]
She died in 1976 at The Retreat, in York.[15] She is buried at Holy Trinity, Penn Street, and on the tombstone there are two lines by Tennyson: "Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still".[11]
References
edit- ^ 1911 England Census
- ^ a b c d Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003
- ^ "Howe, Earl (UK, 1821)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ "Autumn Marriages". The Bystander: An Illustrated Weekly, Devoted to Travel, Literature, Art, the Drama, Progress, Locomotion: 160. 1907. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ "The Wedding of Cousins: Viscount Curzon, Who is to Marry Miss Mary Curzon". The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality. Ingram brothers: 14. 1907. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ Dod, Charles Roger (1844). The Peerage Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland... Whittaker. p. 453. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ Pearson, Simon (2014). Un eroe in fuga. Newton Compton Editori. p. 274. ISBN 9788854163454. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ "1930s Fashion Advice". Knitting Now and Then. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ Beaton, Cecil (1933). The Book Of Beauty. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ Pearson, Simon (7 July 2023). "The love life of the Great Escaper". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Brazil, Eddie (2017). Secret High Wycombe. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 90. ISBN 9781445665313. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Lady Georgiana Mary Kidston (née Curzon, later Lady Starkey)". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
- ^ "Earl Howe Again in Divorce Court". The Telegraph. Brisbane, Queensland. 31 July 1943. p. 2. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ^ Simon Pearson, "The love life of the Great Escaper", The Times, August 12, 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
- ^ "Deaths". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 14 January 1976. p. 1.