Denise Orme

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The Duchess of Leinster
Orme, c. 1905
Personal details
Born
Jessie Smither

(1885-08-25)25 August 1885
Died20 October 1960(1960-10-20) (aged 75)
London, England
Spouses
(m. 1907; div. 1928)
Tito Wessel
(m. 1928; div. 1934)
ChildrenJoan Yarde-Buller
Richard Yarde-Buller, 4th Baron Churston
John Reginald Henry
Denise Grosvenor, Baroness Ebury
Lydia Russell, Duchess of Bedford
Primrose Cadogan, Countess Cadogan
Hugo Wessel
RelativesAga Khan IV (grandson)
Amyn Aga Khan (grandson)
Charles Cadogan, 8th Earl Cadogan (grandson)
John Yarde-Buller, 5th Baron Churston (grandson)
EducationRoyal Academy of Music
Royal College of Music

Jessie Smither, Duchess of Leinster (25 August 1885 – 20 October 1960),[1] known by her stage name Denise Orme, was an English music hall singer, actress and musician who appeared regularly at the Alhambra and Gaiety Theatres in London in the early years of the 20th century. Married, successively, to an English baron, a Danish millionaire, and an Irish duke, she was the maternal grandmother of Aga Khan IV.

Early life[edit]

The daughter of Alfred John Smither, a servant working for lawyers,[2] and Jessicah Henrietta Pococke,[1] she studied at the Royal Academy of Music (where she won the Wessely Violin Exhibition in 1899) and later the Royal College of Music where she was 'discovered' as a singer by George Edwardes.[3]

Her cousin. Ethel Rose Kendall, who acted under the name Eileen Orme, married, the Hon. Maurice Nelson Hood in 1908.[4] He was the son and heir of the second Viscount Bridport (who was also the 5th Duke of Bronte).[5]

Career[edit]

Orme's first stage appearance was in 1906 in the chorus of The Little Michus at Daly's Theatre in London,[6] later taking the role of Blanche Marie in that production. Later the same year, she appeared in the title role of See See at the Prince of Wales Theatre then appeared in The Merveilleuses into early 1907. In 1906, she also participated in gramophone recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. After the birth of her first daughter, she returned to the stage in The Hon'ble Phil in October 1908, and as Lady Elizabeth Thanet in Our Miss Gibbs at the Gaiety Theatre, London.[7]

In the 1940s, Orme owned and operated the Beech Hill hotel at Rushlake Green in Sussex, England.[8]

Personal life[edit]

Orme, 1907

Orme was married three times. Her first husband was John Reginald Lopes Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baron Churston (1873–1930), whom she married on 24 April 1907.[9][10] He was the only son of the John Yarde-Buller, 2nd Baron Churston and Barbara Yelverton (the only child of Sir Hastings Yelverton and the 20th Baroness Grey de Ruthyn).[11] Before their divorce in 1928[12] due to her affair with Theodore W. Wessel,[13] they had six children:[14]

On 31 October 1928, she married Theodor Wilhelm "Tito" Wessel (1889–1948) in London.[19] Wessel was a Danish millionaire and one-time Danish chargé d'affaires in Chile and by this marriage, she had three stepchildren, Barbara, Frederika, and Nina. Before their divorce in Tahiti in 1934,[20] they were the parents of one son, Hugo Wessel (1930–2012), a businessman and the first husband of Nina Van Pallandt.

In the late 1930s, Orme had an affair with Esmé Ivo Bligh, 9th Earl of Darnley. On 11 March 1946, she married, as his third wife, Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, Ireland's Premier Peer of the Realm.[1]

Orme died in London on 20 October 1960.[21] Bankrupt, the Duke remarried Vivien Irene Conner, a waitress, in 1965 before his death by suicide by taking an overdose of pentobarbital on 8 March 1976.[22]

Descendants[edit]

Through her eldest daughter, she was a grandmother to Aga Khan IV and Prince Amyn Aga Khan.[23] Through her youngest daughter Primrose, she was a grandmother to four, including Charles Cadogan, 8th Earl Cadogan.[14] Through her youngest son Hugo, she was a grandmother to the Danish photographer Mark Wessel (b. 1963).[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd (2003), p. 2300
  2. ^ The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., vol. III, G.E. Cokayne, Alan Sutton Publishing (2000), p. 210
  3. ^ "Administration". Cadogan Archive. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  4. ^ "Peer's Heir Weds Actress; Hon. Maurice Hood Marries Eileen Orme, Late of "The Merry Widow"". The New York Times. 20 November 1908. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Viscount Marries Gaiety Actress", Auckland Star, Vol. XL, Issue 2, 2 January 1909, p 13
  6. ^ "Denise Orme Missing", Derby Daily Telegraph, 7 June 1913, p. 4
  7. ^ "New Musical Comedy", Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advisor, 5 October 1908, p. 7
  8. ^ John Robert Russell, Duke of Bedford, A Silver-Plated Spoon (Cashel, 1959), p.169
  9. ^ "Actress to Marry Baron", Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advisor, 18 January 1907, p. 8
  10. ^ "Lady Churston Marries", The New York Times, 1 November 1928
  11. ^ Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 81.
  12. ^ "Lord Thurston Freed From Actress Wife; Obtains Divorce From Former Denise Orme – Agatha Christie Gets Decree". The New York Times. 21 April 1928. p. 5. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  13. ^ "A Peer's Death", Western Gazette, 25 April 1930, p. 13
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. volume 1, page 790.
  15. ^ "Royalty Attends Guinness Wedding; Son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Guinness Marries the Hon. Joan Yarde-Buller in St. Margaret's, London Carnegie Officiates – Bride Is Daughter of Baron Churston-Couple to Live in Pittsburgh". The New York Times. 5 July 1927. p. 17. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Prince Aly Khan Weds Briton". The New York Times. 19 May 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  17. ^ "Lady Churston Birth of Son", Western Times, 17 June 1915, p. 2
  18. ^ Owens, Mitchell (20 August 2006). "Lydia, Duchess of Bedford, 88, Pioneer in Noble-Tourism, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  19. ^ "Lady Churston Marries; Former Musical Comedy Actress Weds Theodore W. Wessel". The New York Times. 1 November 1928. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  20. ^ "Lady Churston Marries" Archived 2012-12-23 at archive.today, The New York Times, 1 November 1928
  21. ^ "Duchess of Leinster, 86, Dead; Former Star of London Stage; Grandmother of Aga Khanu. As Denise Orme, She Won Acclaim in Edwardian Era". The New York Times. 22 October 1960. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  22. ^ "Duke of Leinster Is Dead at 83; Was Premier Peer of Ireland". The New York Times. 9 March 1976. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  23. ^ Press, the United (7 February 1958). "Aly Khan Will Head Pakistan's U.N. Unit". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2022.