Hotties from History

Hotty from History #35 - Jeanette Jerome AKA Lady Randolph Churchill (January 9, 1854 – June 9, 1921)

The contributors to this blog, Georgia, Tom and I have spent rather a lot of our spare time over the last summer chancing upon pictures and articles about various historical personalities and filing them under “drafts” after deciding they would be promising future hotties for this blog, only to leave them festering there, un-biographied and forgotten while we trip over our strings of pearls getting into yet another black cab to go to yet another star-studded and champagne-soaked party. Or at least imagining we are, while downing £2.99 Sauvignon Blanc in our pajamas. That is, until Dr Apple Teeth commented on one of our posts and gave us a well deserved kick up the arse.

Lady Randolph Churchill is possibly the most perfect example of a hotty from history. She was a celebrity before the word even existed - an absolute stunner whose life and gossip are now so intertwined it’s difficult to see where one ends and the other starts. So here are the facts. Or the fiction. Believe whichever you want to:

• She was born to a rich family of eccentrics in New York in 1854, and was named after a woman her father was having an affair with. She was brought up an extremely competent horse-rider, to the extent that her father built a racetrack on their property, so she could ride and he could indulge in one of his favourite pastimes - gambling.
• She had a snake tattooed around her left wrist, which she covered with a bracelet whenever the thing would prove too shocking for her present company. Fashion at the time was for women’s bodies to be almost entirely covered, so several notable upper-class minxes got away with tattoos, as only their lovers would see them. Which is rather saucy, i think.
• In 1874 Jerome married Lord Randolph Churchill, a member of the British aristocracy and politician. She gave birth to their first child- Winston - seven months after marrying his father. I know the Victorians are known for being iron-knickered but I think Lady Randolph is a prime example of how that wasn’t true. Queen Victoria had nine children for goodness’ sake!
• Her second son, born in 1880, was largely believed to be the son of one of Jerome’s lovers, the Viscount Falmouth. Her other lovers included King Edward VII (whose wife, Queen Alexandria was a close friend of hers, knowing full well about the affair), Prince Karl Kinsky, and according to some stories, more than 198 more! Damn this woman could seduce.
• Her ‘friends’ in high places paved the way for her elder son to pursue a career in politics, eventually becoming Prime Minister during the Second World War. Winston Churchill was recently voted “Greatest Briton”, by a BBC survey. I don’t know about you but I like the woman who pulled the strings more.
• Her second marriage was to a young Captain in the Scots Guard, a chap 20 years her junior - the same age as her elder son. when he left her for an actress she married a man 24 years younger than her.
• When she was 16, a New York journalist described her as “more of the panther than of the woman in her look”. Sorry mate but I think se was more of a cougar. A beautiful Victorian/Edwardian cougar who loosened her corsets for the rich and powerful while she charmed them with her acerbic wit and hidden tattoo.
• As the icing on the cake, she died in the most HFH-worth way I’ve ever heard of: Falling down the stairs while trying out a new invention - high heels.

Lady Jenny Jerome-Churchill-Cornwallis-West-Phippen-Porch, we at HFH salute you.

-Sophie.