Queer Places:
5 Paultons Square, Chelsea, London SW3 5AP, UK
Vaynol Estate, Bangor LL57 4BP, Regno Unito
Caroline, Lady Duff (née Lady Caroline Paget) (15 June 1913 – 22 May 1973)
was the daughter of Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey, and his wife, the
former Lady Victoria Manners, eldest daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland. She
was born on 15 June 1913, and became the second wife of
Sir Michael Duff, 3rd Baronet, on 14 July 1949.
During the 1930s, she was a notable British socialite, and a minor actress. She was beloved of the artist Rex Whistler, who painted numerous portraits of her, including a startling nude,[1] which is on display at Plas Newydd, (the ancestral home of the Marquess of Anglesey).
Lady Caroline Paget was the unrequited love of Elizabeth Parrish Starr.[2]
Paget remembered to have been introduced to Tallulah Bankhead and her "friend and travelling companion" Audrey Carten in the 1930s. Paget's cousin, David Herbert, said "Caroline had made a number of new friends during her days in the theatre, the most important being Audrey Carten [...] Audrey faded into the background as a figure in the theatre, but owing to her beauty, intelligence and caustic wit remained a great personality in that particular world. She was a bad influence on Caroline: they set up house together in Paultons Square (Paultons House, at 5 Paultons Square, n.d.r.). Caroline drifted away from her own world and, apart from the family, saw only a small group of friends, chiefly women. I suspect that Audrey was the real love of her life, though she had many affairs with men. Eventually she married my cousin, Michael Duff. This was an arrangement beneficial to them both."[3]
There are several references to her in the published journals of Edith Olivier [4] and The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales [5] has footage of short films featuring Caroline and her sister Elizabeth, as well as other material.
On 22 May 1973, Lady Caroline Duff died at the age of 59. She had one child, an adopted son, Charles Duff (b. 1950).
My published books:
