Deirdre Phyllis Ulrica Hart-Davis (later Balfour, Wolfers, Bland, and Inman; 5 July 1909 – 23 November 1998) was an English socialite, gallery owner and model, included in ''The Book of Beauty'' by

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

. She became a famous beauty and a beacon of style.

Biography

Deirdre Phyllis Ulrica Hart-Davis was born on 5 July 1909 the only daughter of Richard Vaughan Hart-Davis and Sybil Mary Cooper. She was the niece of

Lady Diana Cooper Diana, Viscountess Norwich (née Lady Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Manners; 29 August 1892 – 16 June 1986) was an English actress and aristocrat who was a well-known social figure in London and Paris. As a young woman, she moved in a celebrat ...

and

Duff Cooper Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian. First elected to Parliament in 192 ...

.The Tatler, 1929 She had one brother, Rupert Charles Hart-Davis. Hart-Davis was a great-great-great-granddaughter of

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. William had several illegitimate children with his mistress,

Dorothea Jordan Dorothea Jordan, née Bland (21 November 17615 July 1816), was an Anglo-Irish actress, as well as a courtesan. She was the long-time mistress (lover), mistress of Duke of Clarence, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and the moth ...

. Their youngest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Fitzclarence, later Countess of Erroll, had daughters including Lady Agnes Hay. Lady Agnes married

James Duff, 5th Earl Fife James Duff, 5th Earl Fife, (6 July 1814 – 7 August 1879) was a Scottish nobleman. Early life Duff was the son of Sir Alexander Duff, younger brother of James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, and Anne Stein, the daughter of James Stein of Kilbagie and K ...

and among their children was Lady Agnes Duff, who married Sir

Alfred Cooper Sir Alfred Cooper (28 January 1838 – 3 March 1908) was a fashionable English surgeon and clubman of the late 19th century whose patients included Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Cooper was born in Bracondale, Norfolk, England, the son of ...

. Their children included Sybil Cooper, mother of Deirdre Hart-Davis. As a child, Deirdre and Rupert Hart-Davis were drawn by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

and painted by William Nicholson (1912). Her coming-out dance in 1928 was held by her aunt, Lady Diana Cooper, at 34 Grosvenor Street, whose "café au lait ball-room made a very good setting for the many pretty girls who came". ''

The Sketch ''The Sketch'' was a British illustrated weekly journal. It ran for 2,989 issues between 1 February 1893 and 17 June 1959. It was published by the Illustrated London News Company and was primarily a society magazine with regular features on roy ...

'' wrote: "Miss Deirdre Hart-Davis, is one of the loveliest debutantes of this year and is greatly admired in society ..Our photographic study shows Miss Hart-Davis in the flame-coloured taffeta dress which she wore when she acted as the bridesmaid at the marriage of Miss Wanda Holden to the Hon. Charles Baillie-Hamilton. It is adorned with a black lace scarf, which looks most effective." On 24 April 1930 she married Ronald Egerton Balfour, the only son of Brigadier-General Sir Alfred Granville Balfour and Lady Alfred Granville Balfour, the daughter of Sir Benjamin Simpson. They had two daughters, Susan and Annabel. Ronald Balfour died during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

killed in a car accident.

, who included her in ''The Book of Beauty'' in 1933, used her as model as well. After she was a widow, she moved to New York City and worked for the

British Information Services British Information Services (BIS) was an overt propaganda organization that was part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the government of the United Kingdom. BIS was initially formed in 1941 as an organization to promote British interests ...

moving back to London at the end of the war. She married a second time to David Wolfers. Her friends included Gerald Barry,

Hugh Casson Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect. He was also active as an interior designer, as an artist, and as a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for t ...

and

Lawrence Gowing Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...

. She married a third time to Anthony John Bland, an academic lawyer. They had one daughter, Lucy. In the 1960s the family moved to Lewes, Sussex, to be near

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

where Bland was Reader of Law. They separated when Bland moved to the University of West Indies. From 1973 to 1987 she ran the Southover Gallery out of her own home in Lewes and she exhibited, among others,

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...

Quentin Bell Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (19 August 1910 – 16 December 1996) was an English art historian and author. Early life Bell was born in London, the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell (née Stephen), and the nephew of Virginia Woolf (née Ste ...

Julian Trevelyan Julian Otto Trevelyan (20 February 1910 – 12 July 1988) was an English artist and poet. Early life Trevelyan was the only child to survive to adulthood of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth van der Hoeven. His grandfather wa ...

Mary Fedden Mary Fedden, OBE RA RWA (14 August 1915 – 22 June 2012) was a British artist. Early years Sometimes mistakenly described as the daughter of Roy Fedden (who was in fact her uncle, as was Romilly Fedden), Mary Fedden was born in Bristol ...

, John Nash and Eric Rolfe. She married a fourth and last time to Maurice William Inman. Inman took care of her when she developed Parkinson's disease from which she died on 23 November 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart-Davis, Deirdre 1909 births 1999 deaths English socialites English female models