Lady Randolph Churchill Later marriages How many marriages did she have? Her third marriage, How did her second marriage end? and they were divorced in April 1914, whereupon, in a bit of irony, Cornwallis-West married Mrs. Campbell. Did she have an affairs? I don't know.
Who was her second husband?
Who was Lady Randolph Churchill's second husband?
Lord Randolph died in 1895, aged 45. His death freed Jennie to move effortlessly in spite of her impecuniosity; she mixed in the highest London society circles, and was much-admired by the Prince of Wales. Attending a party hosted by Daisy Warwick, Jennie was introduced to George Cornwallis-West, who was just 26 days older than Winston; he was instantly smitten, and they spent much time together. A captain in the Scots Guards, George had two sisters: Constance (known as Shelagh) was the first wife of the 2nd Duke of Westminster; Daisy was married to the Prince of Pless. George and Jennie were married on 28 July 1900 at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. Around this time, Jennie became well-known for chartering the hospital ship RFA Maine to care for those wounded in the Second Boer War, for which she received the decoration of the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902. In 1908, she wrote her memoirs The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill. George doted on Jennie, amorously nicknaming her "pussycat". However, they drifted apart. The Churchills were becoming a dedicated-literary family, and George, who was a financial failure in the City, slowly fell out of love with his wife, who was old enough to be his mother. Short of money, Jennie contemplated selling the family home in Hertfordshire to move into the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. George was in fragile health when he recuperated at the royal skiing resort of St Moritz. Jennie took to writing plays for the West End, in many of which the star was Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Jennie separated from George in 1912, and they were divorced in April 1914, whereupon, in a bit of irony, Cornwallis-West married Mrs. Campbell. Jennie dropped the surname Cornwallis-West, and resumed, by deed poll, the name Lady Randolph Churchill. Her third marriage, on 1 June 1918, was to Montagu Phippen Porch (1877-1964), a member of the British Civil Service in Nigeria, who was younger than Winston by three years. At the end of World War I, Porch resigned from the colonial service. After Jennie's death, he returned to West Africa, where his business investments had proven successful. CANNOTANSWER
George Cornwallis-West,
Jennie Spencer-Churchill  (; 9 January 1854 – 29 June 1921), known as Lady Randolph Churchill, was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Early life
Jennie Jerome was born in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn in 1854, the second of four daughters (one died in childhood) of financier, sportsman, and speculator Leonard Jerome and his wife Clarissa (always called Clara), daughter of Ambrose Hall, a landowner. Jerome's father was of Huguenot extraction, his forebears having emigrated to America from the Isle of Wight in 1710. Hall family lore insists that Jennie had Iroquois ancestry through her maternal grandmother; however, there is no research or evidence to corroborate this.

She was raised in Brooklyn, Paris, and New York City. She had two surviving sisters, Clarita (1851–1935) and Leonie (1859–1943). Another sister, Camille (1855–1863) died when Jennie was nine.

There is some disagreement regarding the time and place of her birth. A plaque at 426 Henry St. gives her year of birth as 1850, not 1854. However, on 9 January 1854, the Jeromes lived nearby at number 8 Amity Street (since renumbered as 197). It is believed that the Jeromes were temporarily staying at the Henry Street address, which was owned by Leonard's brother Addison, and that Jennie was born there during a snowstorm.

She was a noted beauty; an admirer, Lord d'Abernon, said that there was "more of the panther than of the woman in her look."

Personal life
Jennie was a talented amateur pianist, having been tutored as a girl by Stephen Heller, a friend of Chopin. Heller believed that his young pupil was good enough to attain "concert standard" with the necessary "hard work", of which, according to author Mary S Lovell, he was not confident she was capable.

Lady Randolph launched The Anglo-Saxon Review (June 1899-September 1901), a short-lived quarterly magazine.

In 1909, when American impresario Charles Frohman became sole manager of The Globe Theatre, the first production was His Borrowed Plumes, written by Lady Randolph Churchill. Although Mrs Patrick Campbell produced and took the lead role in the play, it was a commercial failure. It was at this point that Campbell began an affair with Lady Randolph's then husband, George Cornwallis-West.

Lady Randolph served as the chair of the hospital committee for the American Women's War Relief Fund starting in 1914. This organization helped fund and staff two hospitals during World War I.

First marriage

Jennie Jerome was married for the first time on 15 April 1874, aged 20, at the British Embassy in Paris, to Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough and Lady Frances Anne Vane. The couple had met at a sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight in August 1873, having been introduced by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. Although they became engaged within three days of this initial meeting, the marriage was delayed for months while their parents argued over settlements. By this marriage, she was properly known as Lady Randolph Churchill and would have been addressed in conversation as Lady Randolph.

The Churchills had two sons: Winston (1874–1965), the future prime minister, was born less than eight months after the marriage. According to his biographer William Manchester, Winston was most likely conceived before the marriage, rather than born prematurely. A recent biography has stated that he was born two months prematurely after Lady Randolph "had a fall". When asked about the circumstances of his birth, Winston Churchill replied: "Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it." Lady Randolph's sisters believed that the biological father of the second son, John (1880–1947) was Evelyn Boscawen, 7th Viscount Falmouth.<ref>Anne Sebba, American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill", Norton, 2008</ref> although most discredited that due to the boys' striking likeness to their father and each other.

Lady Randolph is believed to have had numerous lovers during her marriage, including the Prince of Wales, Milan I of Serbia, Prince Karl Kinsky, and Herbert von Bismarck.

As was the custom of the day in her social class, Lady Randolph played a limited role in her sons' upbringing, relying largely upon nannies, especially Elizabeth Everest. Winston worshipped his mother, writing her numerous letters during his time at school and begging her to visit him, which she rarely did. He wrote about her in My Early Life: "She shone for me like the evening star. I loved her dearly – but at a distance." After he became an adult, they became good friends and strong allies, to the point where Winston regarded her almost as a political mentor, more as a big sister than a mother.

Lady Randolph was well-respected and influential in the highest British social and political circles. She was said to be intelligent, witty, and quick to laughter. It was said that Queen Alexandra especially enjoyed her company, although Lady Randolph had been involved in an affair with her husband, the king, which was well known to Alexandra. Through her family contacts and her extramarital romantic relationships, Lady Randolph greatly helped her husband's early career, as well as that of her son Winston.

Later marriages
Lord Randolph died in 1895, aged 45. His death freed Jennie to move on effortlessly despite her lack of money; she mixed in the highest London society circles, and was much admired by the Prince of Wales. Attending a party hosted by Daisy Warwick, Jennie was introduced to George Cornwallis-West, a captain in the Scots Guards who was just 16 days older than Winston; he was instantly smitten, and they spent much time together. George and Jennie were married on 28 July 1900 at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.

Around this time, Jennie became well known for chartering the hospital ship  to care for those wounded in the Second Boer War, for which she was awarded the decoration of the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902. She received the decoration in person from King Edward VII on 2 October that year, during a visit to Balmoral Castle. In 1908, she wrote her memoirs The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill. George doted on Jennie, amorously nicknaming her "pussycat". However, they drifted apart. The Churchills were becoming a dedicated literary family, and George, who was a financial failure in the City, slowly fell out of love with his wife, who was old enough to be his mother. Short of money, Jennie contemplated selling the family home in Hertfordshire to move into the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly. George was in fragile health when he recuperated at the royal skiing resort of St Moritz. Jennie took to writing plays for the West End, in many of which the star was Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

Jennie separated from George in 1912, and they were divorced in April 1914, whereupon Cornwallis-West married Mrs. Campbell. Jennie dropped the surname Cornwallis-West, and resumed, by deed poll, the name Lady Randolph Churchill.Her third marriage, on 1 June 1918, was to Montagu Phippen Porch (1877–1964), a member of the British Civil Service in Nigeria, who was younger than Winston by three years. At the end of World War I, Porch resigned from the colonial service. After Jennie's death, he returned to West Africa, where his business investments had proven successful.

Death

In May 1921, while Montagu Porch was away in Africa, Jennie slipped while coming down a friend's staircase wearing new high-heeled shoes, breaking her ankle. Gangrene set in, and her left leg was amputated above the knee on 10 June.  At age 67, she died at her home at 8 Westbourne Street in London on 29 June, following a haemorrhage of an artery in her thigh resulting from the amputation.

She was buried in the Churchill family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, next to her first husband.

Cocktail misattribution
The invention of the Manhattan cocktail is sometimes erroneously attributed to Jennie Churchill, who supposedly asked a bartender to make a special drink to celebrate the election of Samuel J. Tilden to the New York governorship in 1874. However, though the drink is believed to have been invented by the Manhattan Club (an association of New York Democrats) on that occasion, Jennie could not have been involved as she was in Europe at the time, about to give birth to her son Winston later that month.

Portrayals

 Jennie Churchill was portrayed by Anne Bancroft in the film Young Winston (1972) and by Lee Remick in the British television series Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974).
 A play "Lady Randy" written by Anne Undeland was staged in 2019 at the WAM Theatre in Lenox, Massachusetts.

See also
 The Anglo-Saxon Review, a quarterly miscellany edited by Lady Randolph Churchill

Notes

References

Further reading
 Churchill, Lady Randolph Spencer. The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill, 1908 (Autobiography)
 
 Leslie, Anita. Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill, 1969
 Martin, Ralph G. Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill – The Romantic Years, 1854–1895 (Prentice-Hall, Ninth printing, 1969)
 Martin, Ralph G. Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill – Volume II, The Dramatic Years, 1895–1921 (Prentice-Hall, 1971) 
 Martin, Ralph G.  Reissue of both volumes of Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill, (Sourcebooks, 2007) 
 Sebba, Anne. American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill'' (W.W. Norton, 2007)

External links

 Interview with Anne Sebba, author of American Jennie

1854 births
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Jelena Nelipić (; died 1422) was Duchess of Split by her first marriage and Queen of Bosnia by her second marriage. By birth, she was a member of the Croatian Nelipić noble family, having estates in Dalmatian Zagora.

Jelena was the daughter of Prince Ivan II Nelipić and his wife Margareta. Her father was son of Ivan I Nelipac, and her mother Margareta was descended from the noble family Merini of Split. Her brother Ivan III Nelipac was Ban of Croatia who ruled from mountain Velebit to Cetina river.

Duchess of Split 
In 1401, Jelena married Prince Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, a most prominent member of the Bosnian Hrvatinić noble family, and the strongest of the three main large feudalists of medieval Bosnia, bringing with her a significant dowry. Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić was Ban of Croatia, Grand Duke of Bosnia and Duke of Split. Two years later, she became Duchess of Split when her husband was created Duke of Split. Jelena was Roman Catholic, but her husband was a member of the Bosnian Church.

In 1416, Jelena's husband died. Being a wealthy widow left in charge with her late husband's territories, Jelena immediately became subject of marriage proposals.

Queen of Bosnia 
Duchess Jelena married King Stephen Ostoja of Bosnia, thus becoming Queen of Bosnia. Her dowry included her first husband's possessions, such as the royal town of Jajce, and this dowry is the reason why Stephen Ostoja, who had divorced his second wife Kujava in 1415, married her. Her second husband was also a member of the Bosnian Church.

Second widowhood 
Jelena's second marriage lasted much shorter than her first one. She became a widow again in 1418, after only two years of marriage. Her husband's successor was Stephen Ostojić, his son by his second wife Kujava. As dowager queen, Jelena had neither influence nor power. Kujava, the new king's mother and the second wife of Jelena's second husband, became powerful once again. Jelena's second widowhood was marked by conflicts with Kujava. The conflicts were ended in the summer of 1419, when Queen Jelena was imprisoned by her stepson. Three years later, Queen Jelena died in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Issue 
It's possible that Balša Hercegović was Jelena's son from her first marriage, but it's not clear yet. Other than him, who could have been her child, Jelena had no other known children by either of her husbands.

References 

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Bosnian queens
Medieval Croatian nobility
14th-century births
15th-century deaths
14th-century Croatian nobility
15th-century Croatian nobility
Kotromanić dynasty
Murdered royalty
14th-century Croatian people
15th-century Croatian people Ava Anderson, Viscountess Waverley (formerly Wigram, née Bodley; 12 December 1895 – 22 December 1974), styled as Lady Anderson from 1941 until 1952, was an English political and social hostess at the centre of government during the Second World War. Winston Churchill noted "her contact with gt. affairs". It was said that she had "more indirect influence than any woman of her generation".

Life
Waverley was born in France to Evelyn Frances (born Bell) and John Edward Courtenay Bodley. Her grandfather was John Bell and her cousin was the adventurer Gertrude Bell. Her brother as the writer R. V. C. Bodley and another brother was the artist Josselin Reginald Courtenay Bodley. She was painted in 1902 and that painting is in London's National Portrait Gallery. She was brought up in France where her father was based. She met talented diplomat Ralph Wigram in Algiers where he was on holiday from his position of First Secretary at the British Embassy in Paris. They married in 1925 and his career was advanced by her communication and entertaining skills.

Her life became focused on her husband after he contracted polio in 1927 and two years later she gave birth to a son who had significant disabilities. She continued to care for both of them and Winston Churchill later wrote that she "kept him alive" and that he "was her contact with gt. affairs". Her husband is credited by some with leaking key information to Churchill before he returned to power enabling Churchill to be aware of Hitler's rearmament.

When her husband died in 1936 she continued to entertain and network. It was said that she was welcome at any of the London embassies as well as at great houses like Arundel and Belvoir Castle. Within two years she had found a new admirer in the quiet John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley. She was the socialite and he was stand-offish but entranced by Ava. He was at the centre of government during the second world war and when they married in 1941 he was one of the top four politicians in the country. She had the empathetic skills that her husband lacked, and Churchill noted that he found her useful. Some referred to her husband as the "Home Prime Minister" and his jobs included leading the Home Office and being the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Anderson shelter was named after him.

In 1946 her husband was involved with the opera and the reconstruction of the London Docks. She served on a few committees but her talent for entertaining was more important. Her husband helped to care for her son who died in 1951. She became Viscountess Waverley when her husband became a Viscount the following year. He died in 1958.

Viscountess Waverley became a noted correspondent keeping up with events in France and Italy. She was a close and sympathetic friend to Harold Macmillan.

Waverley died in Seaford in 1974 and was buried with her son. The Times said that she "probably exercise[d] more indirect influence than any woman of her generation". She left many letters, unlike her second husband who was noted for writing very little.

She was portrayed by Diane Fletcher in The Wilderness Years and by Lena Headey in The Gathering Storm.

References

1895 births
1974 deaths
Ava
English socialites
British viscountesses