Cherry Marshall (25 July 1923 – 28 January 2006) was an English fashion model and agent, and non-fiction writer. She was married to the poet

Emanuel Litvinoff Emanuel Litvinoff (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011) was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning. Early years Litvinoff's early years in what ...

Early life

Marshall was born Irene Maud Pearson on 25 July 1923, at Girlsta Cottage, Jumpers Avenue, Christchurch, Dorset, the only daughter of Ernest Pearson, a sergeant in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, and his wife, Catherine Margaret Pearson, née Baker, a photographer's assistant. She was educated at Bournemouth School for Girls. In 1942, at the age of 19, she met

at a Catterick Camp dance and they married at a register office a few months later. They had three children together but divorced in 1970.

Career

At the age of 15, she left school to become the singer with a dance band, but could not remember the lyrics. She then worked in a factory, then sat the civil service exams and went to work as a pay clerk at Chatham Dockyard. With the start of the Second World War and the risk of bombing, she moved to Nottingham, where her father was stationed. In 1941, she worked as a fashion model for the first time, until at the age of 18 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a dispatch rider and driver. She came up with the name Cherry Marshall based on "Cherry", her husband's nickname for her, and "Marshall" after the Marshall Plan. She did modelling for department stores, '' Vogue'' magazine, and became the house model for Susan Small, the ready-to-wear clothing company, through which she became known as "Miss Susan Small" in the early 1950s. Despite giving birth to three children she maintained her 22-inch waist and at one time held the record for London's smallest waist. Marshall became bored with modelling, and changed career to become Susan Small's public relations manager. In 1954 she changed again, buying a modelling school and agency in London's Jermyn Street through which she became one of the most important modelling agents in London in the early 1960s. She move to 65 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair W1 in the mid 1960s. One of the models she discovered was

Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis ( née Neilson; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely. In her t ...

, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. The business became the Cherry Marshall Model Agency, and clients included Patti Boyd, Suzy Kendall, Anthea Redfern,

Paulene Stone Paulene Stone (born 10 May 1941) is a British former model. She was a ''Vogue'' cover girl who embodied Swinging London in the 1960s. Early life and career Born in Guildford, she left school at the age of 16 to work in central London, commuting ...

and Pat Booth. She also worked as a fashion journalist, firstly at the ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

''. She ran the agency until 1976.

Publications

In 1956, she published ''Fashion Modelling as a Career''. In 1978, her memoir ''The Cat-Walk'' came out, followed by ''Primetime Woman'' in 1986.

Later life

In the 1990s, Marshall bought a house in

Frinton-on-Sea Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town and (as just Frinton) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 4,837. In 1931 the parish had a populati ...

, Essex, and died there on 28 January 2006.

References

External links

When Cherry Marshall Met Seignon: Making A Model and The Face Of Susan SmallBritish Pathe: Cherry Marshall at modelling school 1964, Mayfair London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Cherry 1923 births 2006 deaths People from Christchurch English female models English businesspeople in fashion English women non-fiction writers Auxiliary Territorial Service soldiers English non-fiction writers 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people 20th-century English businesspeople