Last Curtsey

by Fiona MacCarthy

  ‘The stately homes of England’ – Noël Coward, The Stately Homes of England, Chappell Music Ltd.

  ‘One thing is quite certain’ – James Lees-Milne, ‘The Country House in our Heritage’, essay in The Destruction of the Country House, 1974

  ‘You were our godparent’ – John Joliffe, Clive Pearson: A Life, 1992

  ‘There were 200’ – Melford Hall, The National Trust, 2004

  ‘I join 800’ – Tatler, 2 July 1958

  ‘I have been to’ – Betty Kenward, Jennifer’s Memoirs, 1992

  ‘stiff sets of tennis’ – Violet Powell, The Departure Lounge, 1952

  ‘except that’ – ‘Somerhill History’, The Schools at Somerhill, 2005

  ‘Mrs. Wenger has asked’ – Petrina Hall to Mrs George McKay, 1958

  ‘This is just to tell’ – Nan Danby to Margaret McKay, 4 June 1958

  ‘The other people’ – Petrina Hall to Mrs George McKay, 1958

  ‘The trouble with’ – Evening Standard, 6 June 1958

  ‘deb escorts drive’ – Evening Standard, 18 June 1958

  ‘After Sarah Norman’s ball’ – Tatler, 2 July 1958

  ‘you are at the head’ – Millicent Fawcett, What I Remember, 1925

  ‘Growing up’ – Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  ‘In his office’ – Ludovic Kennedy address at memorial service for Sonia Heathcoat-Amory, 21 January 2000, Well Remembered Friends, ed. Angela Huth, 2004

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘a wild Rabelaisian week’ – Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘the finest and best-preserved’ – Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses, 1988

  ‘singularly satisfying’ – Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes, Great Houses of Ireland, 1999

  ‘V. nervous’ – Penny Graham diary, 2 August 1958

  ‘sleep till lunch’ – Penny Graham diary, 3–10 August 1958

  ‘a mixture of years’ – Penny Graham to the author, 2005

  ‘a beautiful mover’ – Tatler, 21 August 1957

  ‘possessing an estate’ – Tatler, 8 January 1958

  ‘a pretty 22 year old’ – Daily Express, 9 August 1958

  ‘tempestuous outburst’ – Tatler, 20 August 1958

  ‘All Irish houses’ – James Lees-Milne, diary entry for 12 November 1996, ed. Michael Bloch, The Milk of Paradise, 2005

  ‘the most cheery’ – Lord Castletown, Ego: Random Records of Sport, Service and Travel in Many Lands, 1923

  ‘the estate of Borris’ – James Norris Brewer, The Beauties of Ireland, 1825–6

  ‘skirts were short’ – Rosemary FitzGerald, conversation with the author, August 2005

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘the Scottish season’ – Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘Tessa, dark and pretty’ – Tatler, 10 September 1958

  ‘semi-Socialist views’ – Holly Eley to the author, 24 November 2005

  ‘the bands’ – Holly Eley to the author, 17 March 2006

  ‘Congratulations’ – Duncan Fallowell and April Ashley, April Ashley’s Odyssey, 1982

  ‘It is most interesting’ – Sketch, 26 March 1958

  ‘Lady Hayter’s daughter’ – Sketch, 24 September 1958

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘I want to say’ – Tatler, 17 December 1958

  ‘Symptomatic of’ – Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘There were over 800’ – Adam Pollock to the author, 29 January 2006

  ‘The two worlds’ – Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain, 1962

  ‘wholly immoral’ – The Times, report of court proceedings, 9 May 1963

  ‘I went straight’ – Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, Forget Not, 1976

  ‘Who can one own’ – Fiona MacCarthy, ‘In Fear of the Fringe’, Guardian, 19 August 1968

  ‘the skeleton’ – Andrew Sinclair, ‘Anthropologically speaking’, Tatler, 15 April 1959

  ‘Tea parties’ – Charlotte Bingham, Coronet Among the Weeds, 1963

  ‘People knew’ – Observer Magazine, 12 March 2006

  ‘the King hippie’ – The Hon. Penelope Betjeman, quoted Bevis Hillier, Betjeman: The Bonus of Laughter, 2004

  ‘The answer is’ – Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘His social pages’ – Nicholas Coleridge, address at memorial service for Peter Townsend, 6 November 2001, ed. Angela Huth, Well-Remembered Friends, 2004

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘Maxine Hodson’ – Harpers & Queen, October 1960

  ‘a non-stop cocktail party’ – Susanna Swallow, conversation with the author, 21 April 2006

  ‘The generation’ – Annabel Gooch to the author, 25 November 2005

  ‘Attracted by’ – Chryssie Lytton Cobbold, Board Meetings in the Bath: The Knebworth House Story, 1999

  ‘We had the Jonathan Scotts’ – James Lees-Milne, diary entry for 20 July 1991, ed. Michael Bloch, Ceaseless Turmoil, 2004

  ‘Miss DIANE KIRK’ – Evening Standard, 8 April 1958

  ‘ideally as a film star’ – Evening Standard, 6 July 1958

  ‘Much as I enjoyed’ – Margaret Chilton to the author, 7 November 2005

  ‘the film stars’ – Caroline Cuthbert to the author, 28 April 2006

  ‘the Fascist notables’ – David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 1992

  ‘A system which hypnotized’ – The Viscountess Rhondda, This Was My World, 1933

  ‘Now I was really’ – Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  ‘Crowds used to’ – Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, Forget Not, 1976

  ‘The three girls’ – Tatler, 15 October 1958

  ‘the blandishments’ – Teresa Hayter, Hayter of the Bourgeoisie, 1971

  ‘toothpaste smiles’ – Nicolette Powell obit., The Times, 15 August 1993

  ‘She was just’ – Lady Annabel Goldsmith, Annabel: An Unconventional Life, 2004

  ‘Well, I don’t see’ – Jillian Staynes, conversation with the author, 15 November 2005

  ‘ludicrously overdone’ – Julia Mount, conversation with the author, 15 November 2005

  ‘lunge to the left’ – Sunday Times, 30 June 1974

  ‘I love you’ – The Times, 23 October 1973

  ‘proudly and incorruptibly’ – The Times, 26 June 1974

  ‘I have chosen’ – Patricia Campbell Hearst with Alvin Moscow, Patty Hearst: Her Own Story, 1982

  ‘For years’ – The Times, 26 June 1974

  EPILOGUE

  ‘I knew I had to’ – Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story, 1992

  ‘the sexist culture’ – Beatrix Campbell, Diana, Princess of Wales, 1988

  ‘I think’ – Woodrow Wyatt to John Bowes Lyon, 1 February 1992, Woodrow Wyatt Journals, vol. 2

  ‘An astonishing performance’ – James Lees-Milne, diary entry for 21 November 1995, ed. Michael Bloch, The Milk of Paradise

  Picture Acknowledgements

  Page

  3 Debs and their parents queue outside the palace, March 1958. (© NI Syndication)

  3 Sonia York, her parents and friends arrive for the presentation ceremony. (Reproduced by kind permission of Sonia Coode-Adams)

  4 Debs’ escorts mourn the end of presentations. (© NI Syndication)

  5 1958 debs coming to make their curtseys in full-skirted dresses and little petal hats: from left, Sally O’Rorke, Julia Chatterton, Victoria Bathurst Norman, Jane Dalzell. (© Getty Images)

  7 Penny Graham and her great-grandmother the Dowager Lady North on their way to the palace. (Reproduced by kind permission of Penny Graham)

  8 Madame Vacani training debutantes to curtsey. (© Getty Images)

  23 Lovice Ullein-Revicsky, the last of the debs to arrive at the palace. (© Mirrorpix)

  23 Judy Grinling, the last deb to curtsey to the Queen in the final year of pre-sentations. (© Getty Images)

  24 The Reluctant Debutante with its origin
al cast including Anna Massey as the debutante and Celia Johnson as her mother. (© Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection)

  27 Lady Rosemary FitzGerald (right) with a fellow debutante outside the Palace on presentation day. (Reproduced by kind permission of Lady Rosemary FitzGerald)

  38 Alexandra Bridgewater and her cousin Georgina Milner photographed by Tom Hustler. (© Tom Hustler)

  43 Henrietta Tiarks, Deb of the Year in 1957, at a ball at Claridge’s with Prince Alexander Romanoff and (far left) Charles MacArthur Hardy. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  54 Some of Annabel Greene’s many invitations to debs’ luncheons, tea parties and cocktail parties in the spring of 1958. (Reproduced by kind permission of Annabel Gooch)

  61 Allegra Kent-Taylor and Pamela Walford at their joint cocktail party at 6 Hamilton Place. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  69 Archetypal debs’ delight Charles MacArthur Hardy conversing with his hostess, Lady Lowson, at the cocktail party for her daughter Melanie. (© Desmond O’Neill Features)

  76 Group photograph taken after the marriage of Lady Mary Maitland and the Hon. Robert Biddulph in April 1958. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  80 Ingestre in Staffordshire, Lady Ursula Stewart’s family home, photographed in 1958. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  82 The Berkeley Debutante Dress Show. The Hon. Penelope Allsopp, Georgina Milner and Gillian Gough model Cardin’s clothes. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  83 Debs not chosen to be models were given the consolation prize of selling posies to the audience at the Berkeley Debutante Dress Show. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  88 The maids of honour descending the grand staircase in the Grosvenor House ballroom. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  89 The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland cutting the cake at Queen Charlotte’s Ball. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  91 Tommy Kinsman serenading a debutante. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  97 Sally O’Rorke at her dance at Hampton Court. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  105 Georgina Milner dancing. (© Desmond O’Neill Features)

  106 Fiona MacCarthy with a now-forgotten escort at Dominie Riley-Smith’s ball. (© Desmond O’Neill Features)

  113 The Countess of Dalkeith (now Jane, Duchess of Buccleuch). Portrait in oils by John Merton. (Reproduced by kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, KT.)

  115 Victoria Bathurst Norman at the Fourth of June. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  129 The Dorchester Hotel elaborately decorated by Oliver Messel for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. (Reproduced by permission of the Dorchester Hotel Archive)

  133 Isabella Hughes with Fiona and Karin MacCarthy. (Reproduced by kind permission of Jean Barbour.)

  134 The MacCarthy–Burness dance at the Dorchester. Petie and Kenneth Burness with Jennifer, Yolande MacCarthy with Fiona, just before the guests arrive. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  136 The McCarthy–Burness dance going with a swing. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  142 Bucolic scene at Belinda Bucknill and Sara Barnett’s dance in Windsor Forest. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  144 Bramham Park, West Yorkshire, where Marcia Lane Fox’s coming out ball was held. (© Country Life Picture Library)

  145 Miranda Smiley on the night of her dance at Parham Park. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  150 Clandon Park where the Countess of Iveagh held a dance for the Hon. Eliza Guinness and Lady Teresa Onslow in her former family home. (© Country Life Picture Library)

  157 Barn dance given for Mary Groves and Eliza Buckingham at Speen Farm, Buckinghamshire. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  157 The two debutantes Eliza Buckingham (left) and Mary Groves (right) with their parents at the barn dance. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  166 Sally Croker-Poole being given a word of advice by her mother before her dance at Quaglino’s, shared with Julie Stratford. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  169 The girls in the Beaulieu house party. From left: Sally Nelson, Zia Foxwell, Fiona MacCarthy, Penny Graham, Coral Knowles, unknown, Gabriel Waddington, unknown, Jane Holden. (Reproduced by kind permission of Penny Graham)

  170 Nesbit Waddington with Lady Ainsworth at the Irish Grand National in 1958. (Illustrated London News Picture Library / photo by C.C. Fennell)

  171 Penny Graham’s five-year diary, including her account of Dublin Horse Show Week in 1958. (Reproduced by kind permission of Penny Graham)

  174 The Hon. Diana Connolly-Carew and her brother the Hon. Patrick Connolly-Carew. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  176 The Kildare Hunt Club meet at Castletown, Lord and Lady Carew’s house at Celbridge, County Kildare. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  177 Luttrellstown House, County Dublin. (© Country Life Picture Library)

  179 William Montgomery, Master of the Eton beagles in summer 1958. (© Desmond O’Neill Features)

  189 The 110th Royal Caledonian Ball held at Grosvenor House in May 1958. Leading the dancers down for the set reels: the young Duke of Atholl, one of the top deb escorts of 1958, with Lady Malvina Murray; Captain John and Lady Gillian Anderson; Major David Butter and Serena Murray. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  189 1958 deb Lady Carolyn Townshend with Alasdair MacInnes of the Cameron Highlanders. (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  192 Tessa Prain and Ann Carington Smith before their dance at Mugdrum in Fife. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  192 Dancers at Tessa Prain and Ann Carington Smith’s ball. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  193 Holly Urquhart with her parents before her dance at Craigston Castle. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  198 Rowallan Castle in South Ayrshire. (© Country Life Picture Library)

  200 Dodavoe, the shooting lodge at Glen Prosen, Kirriemuir. (Reproduced by kind permission of Frans ten Bos)

  201 Grouse shooting in the Highlands: the transporter for the guns. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  209 Tana Alexander’s coming out dance at Dropmore in 1963, with spectacular decor by Adam Pollock. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  209 Lady Rosemary Muir at Lady Ashcombe’s ball at Dropmore, transformed into a Roman piazza for the night. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  217 Annette Fletcher modelling Young Jaeger beachwear at the Berkeley Debutante Dress Show in 1966. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  217 Sarah Harman modelling Annacat palazzo pyjamas at the Berkeley Dress Show in 1967. (© Barry Swaebe Collection)

  228 Ex-debutantes of 1958 photographed by Terry O’Neill for a ‘Last of the Debs’ feature in the Sunday Telegraph in 1993. From left, standing: Holly Eley (formerly Urquhart), Penny Graham, Lady Kindersley (formerly Tita Norman). Seated, Zia Kruger (Foxwell), Annette Bradshaw, Susanna Swallow (Crawley), Melanie Black (Lowson), Elfrida Fallowfield (Eden). (© Terry O’ Neill)

  230 The Aga Khan and his bride, 1958 debutante Sally Croker-Poole, at the reception for Ismaili leaders at the Prince’s farm at Lassy near Paris held the day before their marriage ceremony on 28 October 1969. (© PA/Empics)

  235 Lord and Lady Cobbold, the former Christine Stucley, and their children Richard, Rosina and Peter in costume for an Elizabethan joust at Knebworth. (Reproduced by kind permission of Lady Cobbold)

  239 Lady Beatty, the former Diane Kirk, photographed by Cecil Beaton at Chicheley Hall soon after her marriage to Earl Beatty in 1959. (Reproduced by kind permission of Lady Nutting)

  241 Caroline Cuthbert (right) and Camilla Paravicini with Frank Sinatra in his house in Beverly Hills in 1962. The photograph was taken on Caroline’s Box Brownie by Robin Douglas-Home. (Reproduced by kind permission of Caroline Cuthbert)

  242 Jennifer Murray, the former Jennifer Mather, record-breaking helicopter pilot. (Reproduced by kind permission of Jennifer Murray.)

  252 Nicolette Powell, the former Marchioness of Londonderry, after her marriage at Marylebone Register Office to the singer Georgie Fame in 1972. (© Getty Images)

&nb
sp; 253 Children’s fancy dress party given by Rose Dugdale, in front row, second from left. Karin MacCarthy sits fourth from left, wearing one of the bridesmaids’ dresses from our mother’s wedding. (Reproduced by kind permission of Virginia Ironside)

  256 Rose Dugdale on her release in 1980 from Limerick prison after serving six years of a nine year sentence for her part in the Russborough art robbery and for helicopter hijacking near the border with Northern Ireland (© PA/Empics)

  264 Lady Diana Spencer leaving the Royal Academy of Arts in June 1981, after an evening party she attended with her fiancé, Prince Charles. (© PA/Empics)

  Endpapers from 1958 debutante scrapbooks reproduced by kind permission of Mary Douglas-Bate and Lady Rosemary Fitzgerald

  Acknowledgements

  I am grateful to the following 1958 debs for sharing their memories and impressions of the Season and, in many cases, for lending me their personal collections of photographs, invitations, dance programmes and letters. Their help with my research has been invaluable. However, I must emphasise that their view of the Season does not necessarily coincide with mine:

  Mary Bayliss, Melanie Black, Annette Bradshaw, Maggie Chilton, Sonia Coode-Adams, the late Alexandra Cotterell, Dominie Courtauld, Caroline Cuthbert, Mary Douglas-Bate, Tessa Downshire, Sally Dudley-Smith, Holly Eley, Elfrida Fallowfield, Rosemary FitzGerald, Annabel Gooch, Penny Graham, Georgie Grattan-Bellew, Judy Johnson, Joanna Mersey, Jennifer Murray, Diane Nutting, Davina Portarlington, Annabella Scott, Auriol Stevens, Susanna Swallow.

  I have enjoyed an opposite perspective on the Season from the following one-time debs’ delights: Jeremy Bayliss, Paddy Colquhoun, Robert Douglas Miller, Giles Havergal, Adam Pollock, Neil Stratford.

  For background on Miss Ironside’s School I must thank Virginia Ironside, Georgina Howell, Caroline Ground, Julia Mount, Meg Poole and our exceptional English mistress, Jillian Staynes. It cannot be a coincidence that Miss Ironside’s produced so many writers.