75 Facts About Lillie Langtry

Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe, known as Lillie Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer.

Lillie Langtry's looks and personality attracted interest, commentary, and invitations from artists and society hostesses, and she was celebrated as a young woman of great beauty and charm.

In 1881, Langtry became an actress and made her West End debut in the comedy She Stoops to Conquer, causing a sensation in London by becoming the first socialite to appear on stage.

Lillie Langtry would go on to star in many plays in both the United Kingdom and the United States, including The Lady of Lyons, and Shakespeare's As You Like It, eventually running her own stage production company.

One of the most glamorous British women of her era, Lillie Langtry was the subject of widespread public and media interest.

Lillie Langtry was known for her relationships with royal figures and noblemen, including the Prince of Wales, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Prince Louis of Battenberg.

Lillie Langtry's parents had eloped to Gretna Green in Scotland, and, in 1842, married at St Luke's Church, Chelsea, London.

Lillie Langtry was baptised in St Saviour on 9 November 1853.

Lillie Langtry was the sixth of seven children and the only girl.

Lillie Langtry's brothers were Francis Corbet Le Breton, William Inglis Le Breton, Trevor Alexander Le Breton, Maurice Vavasour Le Breton, Clement Martin Le Breton, and Reginald Le Breton.

On 9 March 1874,20-year-old Lillie married 26-year-old Irish landowner Edward Langtry, a widower, who had previously been married to Jane Frances Price.

Lillie Langtry had been the sister of Elizabeth Ann Price, who had married Lillie's brother William.

Langtry was wealthy enough to own a large sailing yacht called Red Gauntlet, and Lillie insisted that he take her away from the Channel Islands.

Lillie Langtry went to his clubs and among his artist friends declaring he had seen a beauty, and he described me to everybody he knew, until one day one of his friends met me and he was duly introduced.

In 1877 Lillie Langtry's brother Clement Le Breton married Alice, an illegitimate daughter of Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh, who was a friend of their father; Ranelagh, following a chance meeting with Lillie Langtry in London, invited her to a reception attended by several noted artists at the home of Sir John and Lady Sebright at 23 Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge, which took place on 29 April 1877.

Lillie Langtry was in mourning for her youngest brother, who had been killed in a riding accident, so in contrast to the elaborate clothes of most women in attendance wore a simple black dress and no jewellery.

Lillie Langtry was portrayed holding a Guernsey lily in the painting rather than a Jersey lily, as none of the latter was available during the sittings.

Lillie Langtry sat for Sir Edward Poynter and is depicted in works by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

Lillie Langtry became much sought-after in London society, and invitations flooded in.

Lillie Langtry became infatuated with Langtry, and she soon became his mistress.

Lillie Langtry was presented to the Prince's mother, Queen Victoria.

In July 1879, Lillie Langtry began an affair with the Earl of Shrewsbury; in January 1880, Lillie Langtry and the earl were planning to run away together.

Lillie Langtry remained fond of her and spoke well of her in her later career as a theatre actress; he used his influence to help and encourage her.

In October 1880, Lillie Langtry sold many of her possessions to meet her debts, allowing Edward Lillie Langtry to avoid a declaration of bankruptcy.

Lillie Langtry's husband was not the father; she led Prince Louis to believe that he was.

The Prince of Wales gave her a sum of money, and Lillie Langtry went into her confinement in Paris, accompanied by Arthur Jones.

Lillie Langtry first auditioned for an amateur production in the Twickenham Town Hall on 19 November 1881.

Lillie Langtry next performed in Ours at the same theatre.

Early in 1882, Lillie Langtry quit the production at the Haymarket and started her own company, touring the UK with various plays.

Lillie Langtry was still under the tutelage of Henrietta Labouchere.

Lillie Langtry arrived in October 1882 to be met by the press and Oscar Wilde, who was in New York on a lecture tour.

Lillie Langtry's first tour of the US was an enormous success, which she repeated in subsequent years.

Lillie Langtry returned to the US for tours in 1906 and again in 1912, appearing in vaudeville.

Lillie Langtry last appeared on stage in America in 1917.

From 1900 to 1903, with financial support from Edgar Israel Cohen, Lillie Langtry became the lessee and manager of London's Imperial Theatre, opening on 21 April 1901, following an extensive refurbishment.

For nearly a decade, from 1882 to 1891, Lillie Langtry had a relationship with an American, Frederick Gebhard, described as a young clubman, sportsman, horse owner, and admirer of feminine beauty, both on and off the stage.

Lillie Langtry was named for St Saviour's Church in Jersey.

In 1889, Lillie Langtry met "an eccentric young bachelor, with vast estates in Scotland, a large breeding stud, a racing stable, and more money than he knew what to do with": this was George Alexander Baird or Squire Abington, as he came to be known.

Lillie Langtry inherited wealth from his grandfather, who with seven of his sons, had developed and prospered from coal and iron workings.

Lillie Langtry at first demurred, but others at the table advised her to accept, as this horse was a very fine prospect.

Lillie Langtry became involved in a relationship with Baird, from 1891 until his death in March 1893.

When Baird died, Lillie Langtry purchased two of his horses, Lady Rosebery and Studley Royal, at the estate dispersal sale.

Lillie Langtry moved her training to Sam Pickering's stables at Kentford House and took Regal Lodge as a residence in the village of Kentford, near Newmarket, Suffolk.

Lillie Langtry found mentors in Captain James Octavius Machell and Joe Thompson, who provided guidance on all matters related to the turf.

In 1899 James Machell sold his Newmarket stables to Colonel Harry Leslie Blundell McCalmont, a wealthy racehorse owner, who was Lillie Langtry's brother-in-law, having married Hugo de Bathe's sister Winifred in 1897.

Lillie Langtry was related to Langtry's first husband, Edward, whose ship-owning grandfather George had married into the County Antrim Callwell family, being related in marriage to the McCalmonts.

Lillie Langtry later had a second Cesarewitch winner with Yentoi, and a third place with Raytoi.

Lillie Langtry sold Regal Lodge and all her horse-racing interests in 1919 before she moved to Monaco.

In 1888, Lillie Langtry became a property owner in the United States when she and Frederick Gebhard purchased adjoining ranches in Lake County, California.

Lillie Langtry established a winery with an area of 4,200 acres in Guenoc Valley, producing red wine.

Lillie Langtry's ownership of land in America was introduced in evidence at her divorce to help demonstrate to the judge that she was a citizen of the country.

Lillie Langtry died a few months later in Chester Asylum, after being found by police in a demented condition at Crewe railway station.

Lillie Langtry's death was probably the result of a brain haemorrhage after a fall during a steamer crossing from Belfast to Liverpool.

Lillie Langtry was buried in Overleigh Cemetery; a verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest.

Lillie Langtry continued to have involvement with her husband's Irish properties after his death.

Lillie Langtry was assigned to the Robert's Horse Mounted brigade as a lieutenant.

In 1907, Hugo's father died; he became the 5th Baronet, and Lillie Langtry became Lady de Bathe.

Lillie Langtry died in Monaco at dawn on 12 February 1929.

Lillie Langtry had asked to be buried in her parents' tomb at St Saviour's Church in Jersey.

Lillie Langtry used her famous ivory complexion to generate income, being the first woman to endorse a commercial product when she began advertising Pears Soap in 1882.

Lillie Langtry is a featured character in the fictional The Flashman Papers novels of George MacDonald Fraser, in which she is noted as a former lover of arch-cad Harry Flashman, who, nonetheless, describes her as one of his few true loves.

Lillie Langtry is suggested as an inspiration for Irene Adler, a character in the Sherlock Holmes fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Lillie Langtry is used as a touchstone for old-fashioned manners in Preston Sturges's comedy The Lady Eve, in a scene where a corpulent woman drops a handkerchief on the floor and the hero ignores it.

Lillie Langtry is the inspiration for The Who's 1967 hit single "Pictures of Lily", as mentioned in Pete Townshend's 2012 memoir Who I Am.

Lillie Langtry is depicted as a singer, not an actress, and Dixie Carter's costuming appears closer to Mae West than anything Lillie Langtry ever wore.

Lillie Langtry is a featured character in the play Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily by Katie Forgette.

When first married, Edward and Lillie Langtry had a property called Cliffe Lodge in Southampton, Hampshire.

Lillie Langtry lived at 21 Pont Street, London, from 1890 to 1897, and had with her eight servants at the 1891 census.

On 2 April 1965 the Evening Standard reported an interview with the former actress Electra Yaras who, in the 1950s, had bought the lease of Leighton House, 103 Alexandra Road, South Hampstead, and who now claimed that Lillie Langtry had lived in the house and been regularly visited there by the Prince of Wales.

Lillie Langtry gave this address when sailing on the liner St Paul across the Atlantic in August 1916, and the 1920 London electoral register has de Bathe, Emilie Charlotte, listed at the same address.

Lillie Langtry was a cousin of local politician Philip Le Breton, pioneer for the preservation of Hampstead Heath, whose wife was Anna Letitia Aikin.

Lillie Langtry owned a luxury steam auxiliary yacht called White Ladye from 1891 to 1897.

In 1893, Ogden Goelet leased the vessel from Lillie Langtry and used it until his death in 1897.

Lillie Langtry put the White Ladye up for auction in November 1897 at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard, London.

Lillie Langtry owned it until his death on board in 1900.