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Gladys Deacon An Eccentric Duchess

Gladys Deacon and Chares Richard John Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of

Marlborough, on June 1921. the couple had known each other for 20 years, but theduke's divorce had just been finalized.

by Hugo Vickers

A glittering reception was held at Blenheim Palace on the evening of 15 February tolaunch the exhibition of photographs, paintings, letters and other artefacts associated

with the long life of one of Blenheims most unusual and dramatic chatelaines Gladys Deacon,the second wife of the9th Duke of Marlborough who lived at the

Palace between 1921 and 1933.

For the exhibition the great bust of the 9th Duke has been moved into the LongLibrary from the hall, no easy undertaking. A magnificent waxwork of him has been

loaned from Warwick Castle and placed not too close to the radiators. For many yearsa lock of Winston Churchillshair has been on display. For this exhibition a lock of

Gladyss blonde hair from 1933 is being shown.

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The Duke of Marlborough hosted the reception in the Long Library which was alsoattended by many members of the Churchill family the Marquess andMarchioness of Blandford, Minnie Churchill and her daughters, Jennie and Marina

also the Duke and Duchess of Leinster and Alexander Muir (the Duke's nephewwho inspired the exhibition). The Duke introduced Hugo Vickers who spoke of

Gladys and of the spirit of reconciliation in which the exhibition was taking place.Above right: The Long Library when not set up for an exhibition.

Duke of Marlborough, Hugo and Elizabeth Vickers, and Countess Gina Palffy-

Szokoloczy, great-niece of Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough.

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Marquess and Marchioness of Blandford with John Hoy, Blenheim Palace'sAdminstrator.

Minnie Churchill with her daughters, Marina Brounger and Jennie Repard - and the

wax model of the 9th Duke of Marlborough, loaned to the exhibition by WarwickCastle.

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Hugo Vickers with the Duke after the speech.

Gladyss long and extraordinary life involved many dramatic incidents including

murder, abduction from a convent, the destruction of her legendary beauty, and eveneviction from the Palace. She left in 1933, and the only signs of her for many years

were some dramatic eyes that looked down from the portico over the great door and apair of sphinxes by the water terraces near the great lake.

Now, with the blessing of the present Duke of Marlborough, Gladys returns to

Blenheim, and twelve hitherto lost years in the middle of the twentieth century are

coming to life again.

When you look up at the portico ceiling in front of the main doors of Blenheim

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Palace, you will see the striking painted eyes. The eyes were originally painted in1928 for Gladys Deacon, by instruction of the 9th Duke of Marlborough. The eyes,which depict three blue and three brown, were painted by Colin Gill. Gladys, who

was famed for her blue eyes, climbed the scaffolding to give the artist a bright bluesilk scarf and same colour as her eyes, to work from.

(Eyes restored in April 2008).

Whereas the story of how the 9th Duke of Marlborough married Consuelo

Vanderbilt is well known, the story of his second wife is less so. And yet, arguably,Gladys is the more interesting of the two. Consuelo is of course remembered with

great affection at Blenheim. The staff and tenants all loved her, and her vastVanderbilt fortune literally kept the roof on. Gladys Deacon is remembered with less

affection because she was considered eccentric and difficult. When I went toBlenheim as a teenager in 1968, in quest of her, the message was very much We

dont talk about her. Yet last week I gave a lecture to the 2011 guides at Blenheimand they were fascinated to hear about this forgotten figure.

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Gladys was an American, the mostbeautiful of the four daughters of Edward

Parker Deacon, of Boston, and of his richwife, Florence Baldwin.Her father came

from a rather wild Midwest Americanfamily, while her mother was the daughter

of the rather peppery Admiral Baldwin,who, though an officially accredited US

delegate, refused to attend the Coronationof Tsar Alexander IIIin 1883 as he felt

he had not been given a good enough seat.

Gladyss early days were spent in Europeand when she was 11, in 1892, she was in

a room at the Hotel Splendide at Canneswhen her mother was entertaining her

French lover, Emile Abeille.

Her father, long suspicious, arrived

unexpectedly and surprised them. SpottingAbeille cowering behind the sofa, he firedthree shots into him. Abeille died later in a

pool of blood. Mrs Deacon slightlyshocked French society by sending a

message that she would be unable to attend a luncheon the following day, but at leastthis was considerate to her hostess. Mr Deacon was put in prison by the French for a

few weeks and then released for diplomatic reasons.

Meanwhile Gladys was placed in a convent in Paris. When her father was released, hecame to claim her only to find that her mother had kidnapped her. Mr Deacon sued for

custody and won, and on his return to America took her with him. Mr Deacon knewthe writer, Henry Jamesa bit. During this time, Jamess brother, William saw Mr

Deacon and reported to Henry how vain Deacon was, how he clearly considered hisconjugal exploit gave him a distinction for him in the eyes of fashionable New

Yorkers, and how shocked he was by the way he talked about it before his littledaughter.

While at school in America in 1895, Gladys read of the forthcoming marriage of the

great heiress, Consuelo Vanderbilt, to the 9th Duke of Marlborough. O dear me, shewrote, if only I was a little older I might catch him yet! But Hlas! I am too young

though mature in the arts of womans witchcraft and what is the use of one without

the other? I will have to give up all chance to ever get Marlborough.

This seemed an impossible prospect but presently Mr Deacons head went hot in the

Newport Reading Room, in Newport, Rhode Island, and he was detained as a mentalpatient in the McLean Hospital in Belmont, at which time Gladys returned to Europe

to her mother. Mr Deacon died in the hospital in 1901. Gladys found her way toLondon and met the Marlboroughs. She began to stay at Blenheim. The Duke and

Consuelo both fell for her Gladyss papers contain letters written by each of them(unbeknown to the other) from the same house on the same day in 1901.

Gladys was well educated in Bonn and, released from her studies, she began to trail a

The Gladys passport picture, 1918.

Gladys, the debutante.

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blaze through Europe. Her huge blue eyes, as bright in old age as in her youth, and heralmost perfect Hellenic profile attracted numerous admirers. Combined with this was

a fierce intelligence.

She attracted the attention of Marcel Proust who saw her getting into her car atVersailles;dAnnunzio was said to have fainted such was her beauty; and there were

suitors by the dozen, including a great many Dukes, both British and Italian.

Probably she should have married Prince Roffredo Caetani, later Duke ofSermonetta,said to be a natural son of the composer Liszt. He was a charming young

man, highly cultured and they would have been well matched. Bernard Berenson,theart historian, was another who was fascinated by her as was his wife Mary,and so it

continued, but she never forgot her wish to marry the Duke of Marlborough.

The beautiful Gladys. Gladys Deacon painted by Boldini in

1908. She had begun her relationshipwith Marlborough who was still married

(in name only).

While staying at Blenheim in 1901, the Crown Prince of Prussiafell in love with herand gave her a ring. When driving a carriage to Oxford he terrified his passengers by

continually turning round to gaze at Miss Deacon. His father, theKaiser,demandedthat the ring be returned. When Consuelo and the 9th Duke separated in 1906, Gladys

became more closely involved with him but they could not marry as for many yearsthere was no divorce. In the summer of 1908 Gladys became engaged to Count

Hermann Keyserling,the Baltic philosopher, but after a few torrid weeks, theengagement came to nothing.

By this time, Gladyss mother had put her troubles behind her and become the

mistress of Prince Doria Pamphili,who presently installed her in the fabulous Villa

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Farnese at Caprarola, just north of Rome. But all was not well. In the early 1900sGladys committed a terrible crime against her beauty. She thought there was an

imperfection in her beauty and injected paraffin wax into the bridge of her nose.Gradually this slipped and her legendary beauty was lost forever. Her chin became

quite heavy, and presently she had to have the wax cut out in four places along herjaw.

The Villa Farnese at Caparola outside Rome where Gladys's mother lived as mistressof the Prince Doria Pamphili.

Gladys was undeterred by this, her quick wittedness and intelligence somehow elevating her above this

disaster. There remained no shortage of admirers, and as late as 1920, she was luringQueen Victoriasson, the Duke of Connaught,to unlikely rendezvous in jazz clubs in the South of France.

Meanwhile she moved in interesting circles, one of her friends being the sculptor, Auguste Rodin.

Recalling him in old age, she would say: Of course he was of a very lascivious nature. You know, handsall over you. She told me that he once gave her a statue in white marble and that as he did so, he said to

her: Dont look too much at my other work. Life has taught me what will sell. She took it with her toBlenheim, but in that intellectual wilderness, no one ever asked her about it.

She could be capricious and some said wounding. The Baronne Deslandes,one of the loves of

dAnnunzio, wrote to her: You make me think of a diamond. You are, I believe, cold and pure andwhite, and cutting like that admirable stone. For the diamond has something cruel about it, dont you

think?

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Gladys Deacon's striking features adorn two matching stone sphinxes in the LowerWater Terraces.

The duke walking past the matching sphinx.

For years Gladys and the Duke met for holidays in Europe and were then at their happiest. She

did not go to Blenheim until after Consuelos divorce came through in 1920, by which time shehad known the Duke for twenty years. At last she was free to marry him. The prospect alarmed

her rightly. She later wrote: I loved him, but was fearful of the marriage.

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The Blenheim years were not her happiest. Married at 40, in June 1921, she became pregnant

three times, yet each pregnancy ending prematurely. She did not want children to come, and laterwould say to young girls: If you have any problems, go to the vet. Thats what I always do!

She brought fascinating people to Blenheim, such as Jacob Epstein,the sculptor, who sculptedher and the Duke, and she invited Lytton Strachey, Jean Marchandand others to come and

stay.

Gladys loved the gardens at Blenheim, and had an influence over the new water terraces leadingdown to the lake beside the Palace, and she restored the 5th Dukes rock garden, partly because

it was about as far from the Palace itself as possible.

Busts of Gladys, sculpted by Jacob Epstein.

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Winston Churchill, nephew of the 9th

duke, was also born at Blenheim.

The duke on the grounds of Blenheim.

As the 1920s progressed, so the marriage deteriorated, not helped by the way Oxfordshire refused to accept Gladand complicated dramas following the Dukes conversion to Roman Catholicism. Finally she became increasing

eccentric. When the Duke ventured a view about politics, she said to him: Oh shut up! What do you know aboupolitics? Ive slept with every Prime Minister in Europe and most Kings. You are not qualified to speak! One

evening at dinner she arrived and placed a revolver on the table beside her. What is that for? asked a guest. Oh

dont know, she replied. I might just shoot Marlborough!

The Duke complained bitterly when she took to breeding Blenheim spaniels, and the dogs made messes all over

Palace. Eventually he could stick it no more. He evicted her from Blenheim and then from their London home inCarlton House Terrace.

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Andrews Hospital, Northampton. She lived on until October 1977, and fortunately Ifound her there in the summer of 1975, and it was not too late to make friends with

her though not easy and to hear part of her extraordinary story. Well informed,capricious and mercurial to the end of her long, strange life, Gladys was still able to

exert her power to fascinate.

I shall forever be grateful to her for her stimulating conversation during those years when she was 94 and I was 23. Her advice was always sound. She was concerned that

the life of a writer was precarious. You be a banker, she said, that way you willalways get a hot dinner. Then she told me: If you want to do something, dont tell

other people about it, just do it. Other people will always find a reason to try andprevent you.

To another young visitor she enquired: Have all your talents been brought out of

you? Her view was that young people needed someone to breathe life into them andmake them think in another way. She certainly did that for me.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1905335