Vera Estelle Cathcart, Countess Cathcart (14 May 1892 – April 1993) was a South African writer and actress.
Early life edit
Vera Estelle Fraser was born 14 May 1892 at Cape Town, Cape Colony. She was a daughter of John Fraser of Cape Town.[1][2][3][4]
Career edit
Following her divorce from Lord Cathcart, she wrote the play Ashes of Love which was staged in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City where she succeeded Earl Carroll as the producer of the show. In addition she wrote other plays and several novels, including The Woman Tempted.[5]
Personal life edit
In September 1910, Vera married Captain Henry de Grey Warter of Cruckmeole in Shropshire, in London. Before he was killed at the Battle of the Somme in France, they were the parents of two children:[6]
- Dolores de Gray Warter, who was engaged to Theodore Medlam in 1929;[5] she married Gerald Holdsworth.[7][8][9]
- Henry Grosvenor de Gray Warter (1911–1993), who married "musical comedy star" Mabel Bowers Rean in 1930.[6]
After his death, she married George Cathcart, 5th Earl Cathcart, a younger son of Alan Cathcart, 3rd Earl Cathcart and Elizabeth Mary Crompton, on 6 January 1919 in Chelsea, London.[10] Before their divorce on 23 February 1922,[11] they were the parents of one son:[6]
- Alan Cathcart, 6th Earl Cathcart (1919–1999), a Maj.-Gen. in the British Army who married Rosemary Clare Marie Gabrielle Smyth-Osbourne, daughter of A/Cdre Sir Henry Percy Smyth-Osbourne, in 1946. After her death, he married Marie Isobel French, daughter of Hon. William Joseph French (himself a son of the 4th Baron de Freyne), in 1984.[6]
Her third marriage was to widower and shipbuilding millionaire Sir Rowland Hodge, 1st Baronet on 30 September 1930. Four years after their marriage, Lady Hodge sought a divorce from Sir Rowland but was denied by the court and jury in November 1934.[6]
Lady Hodge died in April 1993.
References edit
- Notes
- Sources
- ^ "Lady Hodge Sues To Divorce Rich 75 Yr. Old Mate". Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune Press Service. 27 November 1934. p. 5. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ "Vera Weds Again". York, Pennsylvania: The York Dispatch. 30 September 1930. p. 21. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ "Titled Bride To Marry In Black". London, England: Evening Standard. 29 Sep 1930. p. 15. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ Rice, Jack (2 March 1959). "Encore for the Roaring '20s". St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 53. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ a b TIMES, Special Cable to THE NEW YORK (19 October 1929). "VERA CATHCART TELLS OF DAUGHTER'S TROTH; Countess Reports Engagement of Dolores Warter, 16, to Theodore Medlam, 20". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e 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 719.
- ^ "Gerry Holdsworth (1904-1985)". holdsworthtrust.org. The Gerry Holdsworth Special Forces Charitable Trust. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
- ^ "GERARD HOLSWORTH HIS BRIDE DOLORES DE Editorial Stock Photo - Stock Image". www.shutterstock.com. Shutterstock. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
- ^ "Miss D. De Grey Warter's Wedding". London, England: The Daily Telegraph. 15 February 1932. p. 13. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ 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 160.
- ^ "Romance in Ruins". Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England: Sunday Sun. 8 January 1922. p. 5. Retrieved 19 November 2022.