Watnall Hall and the scandalous Mrs.Atherton

 

A sad and scandalous "Tale From Watnall Hall" today that emerged from examining the hall's 1911 census return. It shows two visitors at the hall, unknown to me but as I discovered, very well-known in the gossip columns of the Edwardian newspapers and the law courts.

The visitors at the hall on census day, April 2nd 1911 are retired Army Colonel Thomas Atherton, aged 55, a Boer War veteran like his host Colonel Rolleston, and his "wife" Louisa Atherton, 38. Oddly records show them to have divorced in 1906 so her 1911 census entry stating she is "Married" is both wrong and illegal. So who are they are what are they doing at Watnall Hall?

Mrs. Louisa Atherton
wife of Col. Thomas Atherton

Innocently researching her name, I discovered a prominently displayed picture of her (with no explanation) in the illustrated magazine "The KING and his NAVY and ARMY" published on Aug 6th 1904. Digging deeper and Googling "Mrs. Atherton 1904" leads to a huge Wikipedia entry that reveals her to have been an Edwardian society beauty dogged by high-society scandals, headlines splashed over the newspapers worldwide, affairs, divorce and ultimately a sad end. She is described as tall and slender, exquisitely gowned, displaying priceless jewels when in public, the London press at the time referred to her as "the beautiful Mrs. Atherton" and "a fascinating disturber of society".

Even the sub-plots in her story are bizarre such as her involvement in the law banning bears from being led through the streets of London. 

What were the scandals?

British newspapers chose not to report the early scandals perhaps due to the sensitive high-profile connections of those involved, including royalty, but the foreign press had no such qualms. This is how the American "Richmond Times-Dispatch" began an account of Mrs.Atherton's death... "This voluptuous, red-lipped enchantress had exhausted every sensual joy of life. She had enjoyed everything and there remained nothing. With middle age approaching, the grey hairs growing more numerous in her wonderful hair, the lines deepening in her lovely face, the remainder of her life loomed before her as a barren desert of misery." The subtle headline was... "Why England's Most Fascinating Beauty Blew Her Brains Out"

Hugh Grosvenor, 
Duke of Westminster

Scandal number one - began in South Africa in 1899 where she'd followed her husband to the Boer War to help nurse wounded soldiers. She ended up having an adulterous affair involving one senior British aristocrat, resulting in the eventual naming and shaming of Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster. Stories of Mrs. Atherton’s infidelity with the Duke began to circulate in the American newspapers at the end of February 1901. These articles claimed such events had occurred at the Mount Nelson Hotel, when she was a 28 year old London society nurse, who became entangled with a senior peer, whilst her husband was away fighting with his troops. The affair was sensationalised in the American newspapers, since Grosvenor was named as co-respondent a week after his marriage to another socialite, Constance (Shelagh) Cornwallis-West. The affair was not reported in British newspapers. Her husband started proceeding to divorce her but was dissuaded by King Edward VII who the foreign press reported had offered to pay Atherton off to avoid a scandalous court case. 

The divorce did eventually go through but Grosvenor was not named. By 1906, "Mrs. Atherton" was a divorcee. She did not revert to her maiden name and continued to use her married name although she had no right to do so.

Scandal number two - was in 1907 when she brought a legal action for "breach of promise" of a high-profile marriage against Captain John Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baron Churston, who on 24 April 1907, had instead married the music hall singer, Denise Orme. The New York Times reported that there was a question whether the promise had been made while the plaintiff was still a married woman. Mrs Atherton waived her claim for damages and so in a hollow victory, judgment was entered for her. 

The 1911 Slander action
against her sister-in-law

Scandals number three and four - involved affairs with married men. First with Baron Eckardstein of Germany, who had marriage woes of his own as his wife had given birth to a child from another man. For a time he was a companion of Mrs. Atherton, and he invited her to Germany to meet his mother.

Next was her involvement in the Stirling Divorce case where she was mentioned as the third party. During 1908, she and Captain John Alexander Stirling of the Scots Guards, the Laird of Kippendavie, would secretly rendezvous at an apartment in the Cadogan Hotel, Knightsbridge. Stirling was 10 years her junior. This choice of venue had become infamous a decade earlier during the arrest of Oscar Wilde. Between 1908 and 1909 British newspaper readers were transfixed with the Stirling Divorce case, with Mrs. Atherton’s own private affairs being subject once more to lurid public scrutiny. 

The American newspapers reported... "The trial brought an astonishing revelation of the habits of a class of society that included noblemen and chorus girls. Mrs. Stirling [a young American actress] complained of finding her husband sitting in Mrs. Atherton's lap late at night, but the latter explained that she was merely helping him to bear the troubles his wife was causing him. The scenes in court were very dramatic. Mrs. Atherton, Mrs. Stirling and the many titled women and actresses concerned rivalled one another in the splendor of their costumes. A model was produced in court of the Stirlings' charming little cottage near Goodwood race course, at Amberley, in and out of which the characters in the story had pursued one another day and night."

Mrs. Atherton was physically assaulted in her London home by Stirling's mother-in-law who pulled at her victim's hair and scratched her face.

Scandal number five - followed in the wake of the Stirling case after Mrs..Atherton left London for Egypt, far away from the unforgiving society hostesses of London and journalist's primed for the next society scandal. However it was to be one of her own family who provided ammunition for the press. Allegations from her sister-in-law, Lady Irene Dean Paul claimed that Mrs. Atherton was unceremoniously ejected from the prestigious Savoy Hotel in Cairo, resulting in a air of disrepute being cast upon her name. In an attempt to clear her name, Mrs. Atherton brought a slander action in 1911 against her sibling, Sir Aubrey Dean Paul and his wife Lady Irene, who was professionally known as the renowned composer, Poldowski. Mrs. Atheron won her slander case but was awarded a token one farthing in damages.

What were the divorcees doing at Watnall Hall in 1911?

Lady Maud Rolleston
marriage councillor?

Just before the 1911 sander case, Colonel Atherton, by now frustrated with his ex-wife’s profile in the newspapers, asked her to remarry him just for the sake of the children, but she refused. I wonder if this could be the reason they are together in as house guests at Watnall Hall on April 2nd 1911 when the census was taken with the Rollestons, specifically Lady Maud Rolleston, acting as marriage counsellors?

The only previous link to the Rollestons of Watnall Hall seems to date back to early 1900 in South Africa during the Boer War. Like Mrs. Atherton, Lady Maud followed her husband out to the war with the intention of helping the wounded. This she did admirably, unlike many other do-gooding ladies, and received warm praise from senior officers for her work setting up a convalescent home. She wrote a book called "Yeoman Service" based on her diary about her wartime experiences. In it she mentions her time at the Mount Nelson Hotel at the same time as which Mrs. Atherton's first scandal the Duke of Westminster arose. The Cape Town army wives social scene was very small world so their paths would very likely have crossed.

Lady Maud does not specifically mention Mrs. Atherton but the tone of her description of the Mount Nelson smacks of potentially scandalous behaviour... "Here and there were tables filled by individuals difficult to describe because of their air of irresponsibility. The ladies, as a rule, wore very full dress, or rather I should say undress, with many diamonds."

The American newspapers were not so delicate in their description...

"After a time there filtered past the censor reports of amazing gayeties at Cape town, in which Mrs. Atherton and certain favored officers participated. The Mount Nelson Hotel at Capetown was the scene of most of these revels but for a time they were transferred to headquarters near the Modder River battlefield."

The tragic ending

The Athertons did not remarry but the sad events of their lives continued... 

The bear incident - in 1898 they'd lost their 4-year-old son Walter in strange and tragic circumstances. The inquest into his death was held near their family home in Kensington, London. Walter had been traveling with his nurse in his father’s four-wheeled brougham carriage. A bear was being led along the road at the time. The horse bolted, the brougham collided with a waggon, and the nurse was thrown into the road. Walter suffered a skull fracture and was taken to Middlesex Hospital where he was pronounced dead. After the evidence, an opinion was given that it should not be allowed that bears to be led in public thoroughfares. Walter’s uncle Captain William Cossley Atherton of the Fife Artillery stated that he knew of a similar incident. Horses could smell bears, and took fright. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs. Atherton remarries - In the last two and a half months of her life, Atherton, a wealthy divorcee, a woman of independent means, and weary of publicity, finally remarried on 26 April 1919. After a brief honeymoon things went quickly downhill when she encountered her new husband the Honourable Arthur Eliot in bed with Miss Nellie Cornell, his 24 year old stepdaughter from his second marriage. Shortly after, she accused him of further infidelity, when she discovered that he was providing long-term economic support to a dancer from The popular Murray's Cabaret Club, on Beak Street in Soho.

Death - The end came on 9 July 1919 at her house in Mayfair. Decked in her jewels, she first wrote two letters; one to a close friend and one to her husband. She then proceeded to lock her bedroom door from the inside and barricaded some furniture against the door, before returning to sit on a chair where she chose to shoot herself dead in the head "with a sporting gun". She was 47.

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Notes and Sources

The 1911 Census

2nd April 1911 - finds 63-year-old Colonel Lancelot Rolleston in residence at Watnall Hall with wife Lady Maud aged 51. They have no children and my this stage of their lives must be resigned to the prospect of producing no heirs. A heavy weight to bear no doubt. 
Also at the hall are :
- Rolleston's mother-in-law, Sarah Bushby Dalzell (nee Harris), a widow aged 89, born in Canada in London, Ontario (i.e. not London, England) 

Visiting are retired Army Colonel Thomas Atherton, aged 55, and his "wife" Louisa Atherton, 38. 

The Staff

A mixture of domestic and visiting staff/servants, all single, none married : 

- Louisa Mould, 32 Cook born Burton On Trent, Staffordshire

- Blanche Williams, 48, Lady's Maid born Plymouth, Devonshire
- Adelaide Wood, 35, Lady's Maid born Lymhouse, Yorkshire
- Marie Lenssens, 28 a visiting Lady's Maid from Belgium (West Wezeh)

- Myra Pearson, 26 a visiting nurse born Waterloo, Lancashire
- Gertrude Alice Robinson, 24 a housemaid born in Walesby, Nottinghamshire
- Dora Towlson, 21 a housemaid born in Riddings, Derbyshire
- Maud Naylor, 17 a kitchenmaid born in Nuncargate, Nottinghamshire
- Harold Charles Sharratt, 19 a footman born in Burton On Trent, Staffordshire
- Arthur George Doncaster, 23 a groom born in Flintham, Nottinghamshire

Wikipedia entry (and all the associated links) for Mrs Atherton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Louisa_Dean_Paul