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The article says a number of times she was the illegitimate child of
Prince Adolphus (which links
here) and he died more than 30 years before she was born. On the other hand,
this Prince Adolphus was only 17 when she was born, while her mother was 32 (not impossible, but...?).
And it refers to him as her true father, when the connection is only alleged. Anyone know the truth of it?
Swanny18 (
talk) 22:02, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
This article was tagged for
copyediting,
neutrality, and having
no lead section. The last is self-explanatory, but there is nothing here, or on the page, or in the edit history, to justify the other two: So I've deleted them.
And as the article has a lead section now, I've deleted that one too.
Swanny18 (
talk) 17:28, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
Portions of this article are more an attack on Coco Chanel than biography of Lombardi. For example, this statement:
"Coco Chanel hid the truth of her tragic and painful family history, and superimposed a bitter, icy and snobbish version of Vera's glamorous persona throughout her life. Chanel's authentic core self-value was never founded, as her personal identity had been tragically dehumanized and shamed as an orphan."
That may or may not be true, but it's unprovable speculation and only peripherally relevant to Lombardi's biography. Colonies Chris ( talk) 11:22, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
Compare the first edit of this article with the article it's copied from. Note the messed up references due to copying and sloppy editing. Bridget Bate Tichenor was similarly copied from another article years earlier. The source text in both cases is attributed to Zachary Selig. Major editors of both articles are also major editors of Selig's article (amongst others). It's not clear if they're sock puppets of Selig's or fans, but something is rotten. ButOnMethItIs ( talk) 16:06, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
(Resolution: To clarify this, the article was deleted and re-written on 20 November 2011 by User:Moonriddengirl in order to purge the copyright violation. The article's revision history is from that point, and the comments above pre-date the current version of the article.-- Note left by Swanny18 ( talk) 12:08, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
I reverted this edit because it broke the reference list in the article and was trying to restore what information I could using proper formatting, but I cannot verify the information referenced to Sleeping with the Enemy. Page 41 is viewable for me in Google preview, and it does not mention the Marchioness of Cambridge or any of her relatives. Page 34 discusses the Marchioness and her relatives, but it doesn't mention King George VII. I'm a bit puzzled. :) -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 22:09, 9 December 2011 (UTC)
Hello Moonriddengirl: I would like to do some work on this entry. I have a copy of Vahughn's book and am very familiar with its contents and subject matter. For the Marchioness of Cambridge's ancestry, I used an online source which specializes in the hereditary lineage of British aristocratic families. Betempte ( talk) 19:37, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
I welcome members of the Wiki community to supply other source material for the Lombardi biography. I tried to incorporate the work of the previous editor, Moonriddengirl into my editing...the information of Lombardi's death was found in Hal Vaughn's book, p. 192---the phrase "long illness," is open to question, as Vaughn states, Lombardi died of a "severe illness," the nature of which is not described. I'd have to check back, but the phrase "long illness," was Moonriddengirl's own wording, which I retained in my edit. I would then conclude that she herself had her own source material which is unspecified. I felt that the whole biographical entry, while containing salient pieces of information on Lombardi's life, called for re-structuring, i.e. title headings more reflective of a summary of the following section, and a logical, general continuity as to time and events. I'm going to check my page number citations to make sure the page numbers are accurate. If there are errors, I definitely want to fix that and appreciate having that brought to my attention. Betempte ( talk) 20:54, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
It is clear from a study of the divorce papers at The National Archives, Kew [J77/327 C527592], that many statements about Rosa Frederica Baring FitzGeorge (1854-1927) and her daughter Vera Bate Lombardi (died 1948) in articles on the Internet, in Wikipedia and in Ancestry.com, are far from correct.
The sworn Petition of Rosa Baring’s first husband, Frank Wigsell Arkwright, dated 20 October 1884 stated that there were two children of his marriage to Rosa: Esme Francis Wigsell Arkwright, born 7 May 1882, and Vera Nina Arkwright, born 11 August 1883.
1. Esme Francis Wigsell Arkwright was, according to the 1891 Census [RG12/585-26-2], born at 26 Hans Place, London. In 1891 he was aged 8 and living with his father at Sanderstead. His birth was registered at Chelsea in the June Quarter of 1882 [GRO Birth Indexes 1a 370].
2. Vera Nina Arkwright, was, according to the 1891 Census [RG12/932-69-9], born at London. In 1891 she was aged 7 and living with her Baring grandparents at Norman Court. Her birth was registered (as ‘Female Arkwright’) at Kensington in the September Quarter of 1883 [GRO indexes 1a 172].
The daughter Vera Nina Arkwright was thus not born in 1885 and it is highly unlikely that she was the daughter of Prince Adolphus of Teck (born 13 August 1868) who would have been only a few months past his fourteenth birthday at the time of her conception (and not seventeen as variously stated).
Frank Arkwright’s Petition for Divorce in which he accused Rosa of frequently committing adultery (at places and on dates specified) with Lieutenant Colonel George FitzGeorge, the Co-Respondent (on whom notice of the proceedings would have been served and who was legally represented), names the children and gives their dates of birth. The Divorce proceedings were also widely reported in the national and local press. That George FitzGeorge was, at the time of his marriage to Rosa Arkwright a year later (28 November 1885) not aware that his future wife had been previously married and was the mother of two children, is thus not correct.
Frank Arkwright petitioned for custody of the children. Both Rosa and George FitzGeorge denied adultery but did not appear in Court to defend the suit, being represented by the same solicitors. Rosa’s initial costs of £12-4-8 were paid by Frank Arkwright. The marriage was dissolved by a Decree Nisi on 5 March 1885 which was made Absolute on 27 October 1885. The Court ordered that George FitzGeorge pay the costs of the action and that the children should remain with Frank Arkwright until further Order.
It is thus clear that Rosa FitzGeorge did not ‘abandon’ her children as stated in the articles. Rosa being the ‘guilty party’ in the action, the children were initially placed in the care of Frank Arkwright, but on 4 May 1886 the Court ordered that Vera Nina be placed in the custody of her grandmother (and Rosa’s mother) Elizabeth Baring as had been Agreed on 19 April 1886.
Frank Arkwright then applied for permission to vary the terms of his Marriage Settlement with Rosa Baring dated 27 August 1878. After various delays a Variation was agreed by the Trustees of the Settlement and this was confirmed by the Court on 8 June 1886 which ordered that £200 per annum be paid to Rosa from the income arising from the Trust Fund, the remainder being placed in trust for the children. Rosa’s power to appoint Trustees was cancelled. On 14 August 1886 George FitzGeorge was ordered to pay Frank Arkwright’s costs of £56-1-9.
Frank Arkwright died on 13 March 1893 (leaving a Personal Estate of £10,217-14-8) and on 7 August 1893 his Executors and Vera’s Guardians were involved in further discussions about his Marriage Settlement and the Trustees were restrained from dealing in the property. On 26 February 1894 the Court ordered that Vera be represented in the proceedings and on 20 April 1894 it noted that she had (on 17 April 1894) elected Elizabeth Baring to be her Guardian. On 13 July 1894 the Court ordered that Rosa Arkwright also be at liberty to intervene in the proceedings and her solicitors duly filed an Intervention.
On 13 & 14 May 1895 the Court ordered that a Report of the Registrar on a Variation of the Settlement be confirmed to take effect from 14 May 1895, the costs of all the parties being paid out of the income arising since 14 May 1895 from a sum of £10,000 brought into Settlement by the late Petitioner (Frank Arkwright). The costs of the Trustees and Guardians were filed 1 August 1895. There is no further document on the Divorce file.
Elizabeth Baring, Vera Nina’s grandmother, died at Norman Court on 6 November 1897 (leaving a Personal Estate of £518-1-1) and Elizabeth’s husband, William Henry Baring, died at Norman Court on 10 June 1906 (leaving a Personal Estate of £84,874-18-11). Their wills may throw further light on the matter.
Vera Nina Arkwright has not been found in England in the 1901 and 1911 census returns and it is not clear where she was living in those years (though her US passport applications say that she lived in England from 1884 to 1914). She may be the Miss Vera Arkwright at 17 Connaught Street, South Paddington, in 1915 [Electoral Register, Hyde Park Ward, Division 3, Page 375]. If and when she lived with Lady Margaret Grosvenor (1873-1929), the daughter of the First Duke of Westminster and the wife (from 1894) of the above mentioned Prince Adolphus of Teck (who was created Duke of Teck in 1900 and Marquis of Cambridge in 1917), and if and when she assumed the forenames Sarah Gertrude, as stated in the articles, is not clear.
Vera Nina married Frederick Blantford Bate in Paris, 1 May 1916, in the name Vera Nina Arkwright and later that day applied for a passport using the name Vera Nina Bate. She made her will (following her second marriage to Alberto Lombardi) and it was proved in London in 1949 in the name Vera Nina Lombardi. Although her age in the 1891 census (as given by her grandparents) is correct, Vera thought, or pretended, that she was born later. Her passport applications in 1916 say that she was born 11 August 1885 whilst those made in 1919-21 say that she was born 11 August 1884.
From careful Court arrangements outlined above it is clear that Vera, her brother and her mother shared the income from the Trust set up by her father. After her mother’s death in 1927 she would have shared the balance of the Trust with her brother until he died in 1934. She may have received other funds under the wills of her father and grandfather. Vera’s limited administration (with will) was granted in London, 21 March 1949 [Effects £4.444-9-9], to her cousin Evelyn Bingham Baring (1893-1966) a Director of Baring Brothers & Co and the son of her mother’s brother, William Bingham Baring (1859-1916), as attorney for Alberto Lombardi.
The sensational stories of a royal illegitimacy and cover-up thus have no basis in fact. It is equally clear that Vera Nina Bate Lombardi (1883-1948) and her daughter Bridget Bate Tichenor (1917-1990), both of whom have biographies on Wikipedia, had no royal descent through the FitzGeorge connection. AnthonyCamp ( talk) 11:01, 12 November 2012 (UTC).
This article (which was recently completely rewritten: viz from
this to
this) appears to comprehensively breach WP Guidelines; I believe it lacks
Verifiability, is full of
original research, lacks a
neutral point of view and is
something WP is not; it reads like a
personal essay and is full of
random and irrelevant material.
The matter has been raised with editor responsible (
see here) but I would benefit from opinion by someone more familiar with biographical articles.
Swanny18 (
talk) 11:51, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
The two books cited in this article as sources for information about the birth and parentage of Vera Bate Lombardi need investigation. Both Axel Madsen (1930-2007) in his Chanel: a woman of her own (1991) and Hal Vaughan (1928-2013) in his Sleeping with the enemy: Coco Chanel’s secret war (2011), seem to rely only on the allegations of Vera’s daughter Bridget Bate Tichenor (1917-1990). Bridget was a surrealist painter in the ‘magic realism school’ and had, it seems to me, little interest in factual truth. It is impossible to consider her a reliable witness. She had been estranged from her mother since 1939 and had moved to a reclusive life in Mexico in 1953. She considered her mother a ‘monster’ and told many stories about her to a spiritist protégé whom she met in 1971. Amongst these stories was the suggestion that she (Bridget, born in 1917) was the daughter of Coco Chanel and the Duke of Westminster (who did not meet until 1923), that her mother (Vera Arkwright, born in 1883) used the name Sarah Gertrude Arkwright and was the ‘surrogate child’ of the Duchess of Westminster, that Vera was descended from King George III and was either the daughter of Rosa Baring by George FitzGeorge (Rosa’s second husband) or by Prince Adolphus of Teck (then just fourteen), that Rosa had abandoned her children (born in 1882 and 1883) by her first husband Frank Arkwright and that there was a royal ‘cover up’ when they divorced in 1884-5, and so forth. These allegations were made known by Bridget’s protégé after her death in 1990 but none, so far as I have been able to discover, has been corroborated from other sources. The statements cannot be dignified as ‘family tradition’ and they seem to have been unknown to anyone other than the protégé until publication.
Vera frequently gave false information about her date of birth and the allegations that Prince Adolphus was her father were made by her daughter in the belief that Vera was not born until 1885 (when Prince Adolphus would have been 16 or 17) whereas she was born in 1883 when he was just 14. The 1884-5 divorce papers of Vera’s parents Frank Arkwright and Rosa Baring show that their marriage settlement was openly discussed in court, its trustees were closely involved, and after Frank’s death in March 1893, his executors were also involved. By a deed of separation made prior to the divorce the two children had been placed with Rosa Arkwright, Frank having access, but Rosa was disinclined to allow access and when it was found that she was committing adultery with George FitzGeorge, divorce proceedings were instituted in October 1884. The children were as a result placed with their father who, under the terms of his marriage settlement, was providing for their upkeep. The divorce was no quickly hushed-up matter and various extensions of time were given so that those affected might be represented and bring forward information which would safeguard the future income and welfare of the children. It was not until 4 May 1886 that it was ordered that Vera be placed, by mutual agreement, in the care of Rosa’s mother, Elizabeth Baring. Affidavits were filed as late as April 1894 (following Frank’s death) relating to the child’s election of Elizabeth Baring as her testamentary guardian ad litam. The entry in the 1891 census showing Vera as the ‘granddaughter adopted’ of Elizabeth Baring’s husband is in no way remarkable and should not be used to suggest that Vera was illegitimate. 11:19, 27 June 2015 (UTC). — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnthonyCamp ( talk • contribs) AnthonyCamp ( talk) 11:22, 27 June 2015 (UTC).
Tillar J Mazzeo says that, according to Chanel's boyfriend von Dincklage, Coco Chanel was Lombardi's lesbian lover. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.197.12.104 ( talk) 17:18, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||
|
The article says a number of times she was the illegitimate child of
Prince Adolphus (which links
here) and he died more than 30 years before she was born. On the other hand,
this Prince Adolphus was only 17 when she was born, while her mother was 32 (not impossible, but...?).
And it refers to him as her true father, when the connection is only alleged. Anyone know the truth of it?
Swanny18 (
talk) 22:02, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
This article was tagged for
copyediting,
neutrality, and having
no lead section. The last is self-explanatory, but there is nothing here, or on the page, or in the edit history, to justify the other two: So I've deleted them.
And as the article has a lead section now, I've deleted that one too.
Swanny18 (
talk) 17:28, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
Portions of this article are more an attack on Coco Chanel than biography of Lombardi. For example, this statement:
"Coco Chanel hid the truth of her tragic and painful family history, and superimposed a bitter, icy and snobbish version of Vera's glamorous persona throughout her life. Chanel's authentic core self-value was never founded, as her personal identity had been tragically dehumanized and shamed as an orphan."
That may or may not be true, but it's unprovable speculation and only peripherally relevant to Lombardi's biography. Colonies Chris ( talk) 11:22, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
Compare the first edit of this article with the article it's copied from. Note the messed up references due to copying and sloppy editing. Bridget Bate Tichenor was similarly copied from another article years earlier. The source text in both cases is attributed to Zachary Selig. Major editors of both articles are also major editors of Selig's article (amongst others). It's not clear if they're sock puppets of Selig's or fans, but something is rotten. ButOnMethItIs ( talk) 16:06, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
(Resolution: To clarify this, the article was deleted and re-written on 20 November 2011 by User:Moonriddengirl in order to purge the copyright violation. The article's revision history is from that point, and the comments above pre-date the current version of the article.-- Note left by Swanny18 ( talk) 12:08, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
I reverted this edit because it broke the reference list in the article and was trying to restore what information I could using proper formatting, but I cannot verify the information referenced to Sleeping with the Enemy. Page 41 is viewable for me in Google preview, and it does not mention the Marchioness of Cambridge or any of her relatives. Page 34 discusses the Marchioness and her relatives, but it doesn't mention King George VII. I'm a bit puzzled. :) -- Moonriddengirl (talk) 22:09, 9 December 2011 (UTC)
Hello Moonriddengirl: I would like to do some work on this entry. I have a copy of Vahughn's book and am very familiar with its contents and subject matter. For the Marchioness of Cambridge's ancestry, I used an online source which specializes in the hereditary lineage of British aristocratic families. Betempte ( talk) 19:37, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
I welcome members of the Wiki community to supply other source material for the Lombardi biography. I tried to incorporate the work of the previous editor, Moonriddengirl into my editing...the information of Lombardi's death was found in Hal Vaughn's book, p. 192---the phrase "long illness," is open to question, as Vaughn states, Lombardi died of a "severe illness," the nature of which is not described. I'd have to check back, but the phrase "long illness," was Moonriddengirl's own wording, which I retained in my edit. I would then conclude that she herself had her own source material which is unspecified. I felt that the whole biographical entry, while containing salient pieces of information on Lombardi's life, called for re-structuring, i.e. title headings more reflective of a summary of the following section, and a logical, general continuity as to time and events. I'm going to check my page number citations to make sure the page numbers are accurate. If there are errors, I definitely want to fix that and appreciate having that brought to my attention. Betempte ( talk) 20:54, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
It is clear from a study of the divorce papers at The National Archives, Kew [J77/327 C527592], that many statements about Rosa Frederica Baring FitzGeorge (1854-1927) and her daughter Vera Bate Lombardi (died 1948) in articles on the Internet, in Wikipedia and in Ancestry.com, are far from correct.
The sworn Petition of Rosa Baring’s first husband, Frank Wigsell Arkwright, dated 20 October 1884 stated that there were two children of his marriage to Rosa: Esme Francis Wigsell Arkwright, born 7 May 1882, and Vera Nina Arkwright, born 11 August 1883.
1. Esme Francis Wigsell Arkwright was, according to the 1891 Census [RG12/585-26-2], born at 26 Hans Place, London. In 1891 he was aged 8 and living with his father at Sanderstead. His birth was registered at Chelsea in the June Quarter of 1882 [GRO Birth Indexes 1a 370].
2. Vera Nina Arkwright, was, according to the 1891 Census [RG12/932-69-9], born at London. In 1891 she was aged 7 and living with her Baring grandparents at Norman Court. Her birth was registered (as ‘Female Arkwright’) at Kensington in the September Quarter of 1883 [GRO indexes 1a 172].
The daughter Vera Nina Arkwright was thus not born in 1885 and it is highly unlikely that she was the daughter of Prince Adolphus of Teck (born 13 August 1868) who would have been only a few months past his fourteenth birthday at the time of her conception (and not seventeen as variously stated).
Frank Arkwright’s Petition for Divorce in which he accused Rosa of frequently committing adultery (at places and on dates specified) with Lieutenant Colonel George FitzGeorge, the Co-Respondent (on whom notice of the proceedings would have been served and who was legally represented), names the children and gives their dates of birth. The Divorce proceedings were also widely reported in the national and local press. That George FitzGeorge was, at the time of his marriage to Rosa Arkwright a year later (28 November 1885) not aware that his future wife had been previously married and was the mother of two children, is thus not correct.
Frank Arkwright petitioned for custody of the children. Both Rosa and George FitzGeorge denied adultery but did not appear in Court to defend the suit, being represented by the same solicitors. Rosa’s initial costs of £12-4-8 were paid by Frank Arkwright. The marriage was dissolved by a Decree Nisi on 5 March 1885 which was made Absolute on 27 October 1885. The Court ordered that George FitzGeorge pay the costs of the action and that the children should remain with Frank Arkwright until further Order.
It is thus clear that Rosa FitzGeorge did not ‘abandon’ her children as stated in the articles. Rosa being the ‘guilty party’ in the action, the children were initially placed in the care of Frank Arkwright, but on 4 May 1886 the Court ordered that Vera Nina be placed in the custody of her grandmother (and Rosa’s mother) Elizabeth Baring as had been Agreed on 19 April 1886.
Frank Arkwright then applied for permission to vary the terms of his Marriage Settlement with Rosa Baring dated 27 August 1878. After various delays a Variation was agreed by the Trustees of the Settlement and this was confirmed by the Court on 8 June 1886 which ordered that £200 per annum be paid to Rosa from the income arising from the Trust Fund, the remainder being placed in trust for the children. Rosa’s power to appoint Trustees was cancelled. On 14 August 1886 George FitzGeorge was ordered to pay Frank Arkwright’s costs of £56-1-9.
Frank Arkwright died on 13 March 1893 (leaving a Personal Estate of £10,217-14-8) and on 7 August 1893 his Executors and Vera’s Guardians were involved in further discussions about his Marriage Settlement and the Trustees were restrained from dealing in the property. On 26 February 1894 the Court ordered that Vera be represented in the proceedings and on 20 April 1894 it noted that she had (on 17 April 1894) elected Elizabeth Baring to be her Guardian. On 13 July 1894 the Court ordered that Rosa Arkwright also be at liberty to intervene in the proceedings and her solicitors duly filed an Intervention.
On 13 & 14 May 1895 the Court ordered that a Report of the Registrar on a Variation of the Settlement be confirmed to take effect from 14 May 1895, the costs of all the parties being paid out of the income arising since 14 May 1895 from a sum of £10,000 brought into Settlement by the late Petitioner (Frank Arkwright). The costs of the Trustees and Guardians were filed 1 August 1895. There is no further document on the Divorce file.
Elizabeth Baring, Vera Nina’s grandmother, died at Norman Court on 6 November 1897 (leaving a Personal Estate of £518-1-1) and Elizabeth’s husband, William Henry Baring, died at Norman Court on 10 June 1906 (leaving a Personal Estate of £84,874-18-11). Their wills may throw further light on the matter.
Vera Nina Arkwright has not been found in England in the 1901 and 1911 census returns and it is not clear where she was living in those years (though her US passport applications say that she lived in England from 1884 to 1914). She may be the Miss Vera Arkwright at 17 Connaught Street, South Paddington, in 1915 [Electoral Register, Hyde Park Ward, Division 3, Page 375]. If and when she lived with Lady Margaret Grosvenor (1873-1929), the daughter of the First Duke of Westminster and the wife (from 1894) of the above mentioned Prince Adolphus of Teck (who was created Duke of Teck in 1900 and Marquis of Cambridge in 1917), and if and when she assumed the forenames Sarah Gertrude, as stated in the articles, is not clear.
Vera Nina married Frederick Blantford Bate in Paris, 1 May 1916, in the name Vera Nina Arkwright and later that day applied for a passport using the name Vera Nina Bate. She made her will (following her second marriage to Alberto Lombardi) and it was proved in London in 1949 in the name Vera Nina Lombardi. Although her age in the 1891 census (as given by her grandparents) is correct, Vera thought, or pretended, that she was born later. Her passport applications in 1916 say that she was born 11 August 1885 whilst those made in 1919-21 say that she was born 11 August 1884.
From careful Court arrangements outlined above it is clear that Vera, her brother and her mother shared the income from the Trust set up by her father. After her mother’s death in 1927 she would have shared the balance of the Trust with her brother until he died in 1934. She may have received other funds under the wills of her father and grandfather. Vera’s limited administration (with will) was granted in London, 21 March 1949 [Effects £4.444-9-9], to her cousin Evelyn Bingham Baring (1893-1966) a Director of Baring Brothers & Co and the son of her mother’s brother, William Bingham Baring (1859-1916), as attorney for Alberto Lombardi.
The sensational stories of a royal illegitimacy and cover-up thus have no basis in fact. It is equally clear that Vera Nina Bate Lombardi (1883-1948) and her daughter Bridget Bate Tichenor (1917-1990), both of whom have biographies on Wikipedia, had no royal descent through the FitzGeorge connection. AnthonyCamp ( talk) 11:01, 12 November 2012 (UTC).
This article (which was recently completely rewritten: viz from
this to
this) appears to comprehensively breach WP Guidelines; I believe it lacks
Verifiability, is full of
original research, lacks a
neutral point of view and is
something WP is not; it reads like a
personal essay and is full of
random and irrelevant material.
The matter has been raised with editor responsible (
see here) but I would benefit from opinion by someone more familiar with biographical articles.
Swanny18 (
talk) 11:51, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
The two books cited in this article as sources for information about the birth and parentage of Vera Bate Lombardi need investigation. Both Axel Madsen (1930-2007) in his Chanel: a woman of her own (1991) and Hal Vaughan (1928-2013) in his Sleeping with the enemy: Coco Chanel’s secret war (2011), seem to rely only on the allegations of Vera’s daughter Bridget Bate Tichenor (1917-1990). Bridget was a surrealist painter in the ‘magic realism school’ and had, it seems to me, little interest in factual truth. It is impossible to consider her a reliable witness. She had been estranged from her mother since 1939 and had moved to a reclusive life in Mexico in 1953. She considered her mother a ‘monster’ and told many stories about her to a spiritist protégé whom she met in 1971. Amongst these stories was the suggestion that she (Bridget, born in 1917) was the daughter of Coco Chanel and the Duke of Westminster (who did not meet until 1923), that her mother (Vera Arkwright, born in 1883) used the name Sarah Gertrude Arkwright and was the ‘surrogate child’ of the Duchess of Westminster, that Vera was descended from King George III and was either the daughter of Rosa Baring by George FitzGeorge (Rosa’s second husband) or by Prince Adolphus of Teck (then just fourteen), that Rosa had abandoned her children (born in 1882 and 1883) by her first husband Frank Arkwright and that there was a royal ‘cover up’ when they divorced in 1884-5, and so forth. These allegations were made known by Bridget’s protégé after her death in 1990 but none, so far as I have been able to discover, has been corroborated from other sources. The statements cannot be dignified as ‘family tradition’ and they seem to have been unknown to anyone other than the protégé until publication.
Vera frequently gave false information about her date of birth and the allegations that Prince Adolphus was her father were made by her daughter in the belief that Vera was not born until 1885 (when Prince Adolphus would have been 16 or 17) whereas she was born in 1883 when he was just 14. The 1884-5 divorce papers of Vera’s parents Frank Arkwright and Rosa Baring show that their marriage settlement was openly discussed in court, its trustees were closely involved, and after Frank’s death in March 1893, his executors were also involved. By a deed of separation made prior to the divorce the two children had been placed with Rosa Arkwright, Frank having access, but Rosa was disinclined to allow access and when it was found that she was committing adultery with George FitzGeorge, divorce proceedings were instituted in October 1884. The children were as a result placed with their father who, under the terms of his marriage settlement, was providing for their upkeep. The divorce was no quickly hushed-up matter and various extensions of time were given so that those affected might be represented and bring forward information which would safeguard the future income and welfare of the children. It was not until 4 May 1886 that it was ordered that Vera be placed, by mutual agreement, in the care of Rosa’s mother, Elizabeth Baring. Affidavits were filed as late as April 1894 (following Frank’s death) relating to the child’s election of Elizabeth Baring as her testamentary guardian ad litam. The entry in the 1891 census showing Vera as the ‘granddaughter adopted’ of Elizabeth Baring’s husband is in no way remarkable and should not be used to suggest that Vera was illegitimate. 11:19, 27 June 2015 (UTC). — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnthonyCamp ( talk • contribs) AnthonyCamp ( talk) 11:22, 27 June 2015 (UTC).
Tillar J Mazzeo says that, according to Chanel's boyfriend von Dincklage, Coco Chanel was Lombardi's lesbian lover. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.197.12.104 ( talk) 17:18, 18 June 2022 (UTC)