#marie-thérèse béraudière

[indiscreetdiary]

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (vol. 1), 1918-38, entry for Tuesday, 1st January 1918

There were no midnight Masses last night to celebrate ‘réveillon’.¹ Nor were the restaurants allowed to remain open after 9 p.m. I went to the Casino de Paris where Gaby Deslys² twice daily charms the most cosmopolitan audiences the world has ever seen. The promenoir³ during the entr’actes is enlivened by an American negro ‘jazz’ orchestra which amazes the hundreds of French and Italian officers as much as it delights the Americans, Canadian and English Tommies. The bar is the world’s rendezvous for all armies (even the ‘Boche’ if the cynics can be believed). There you find your tailor from Nevada turned colonel, pretending to enjoy the French. And ‘Antonio’ falls into the arms of his brother that he left in Sicily. Alone the cocottes and the English ‘red tab’ generals remain inscrutable. Later went for tea to the comtesse de la Béraudière’s⁴ whose salon has also become an international meeting place of a somewhat different class. English Guardsmen look vainly for the dancing partners of four years ago. The Duchess of Sutherland⁵ told us of her wonderful work in her barge hospitals that were floating ships of mercy and will be known in legend when forgotten in history. She is lovely in a wrecked Madonna way and most fascinating. Mme de la Béraudière is supposed to be the most hirsute woman in Paris; [she] was youngishly dressed, fat and gracious. She introduced me to HRH Prince Antoine d’Orléans,⁶ a son of the comte d’Eu.⁷ He is a typical Bourbon and looks like Louis XIV. He dances and speaks English well. He is in the Canadian army and wears their uniform, as the law in France forbids members of its oldest family from serving under its colours. He is the heir to the empty throne of Brazil, his mother being the last sovereign … one occasionally hears of royalist feeling as being still existent there. Dine with comtesse de Béarn,⁸ I am falling in love with her. I long for an affair in the grand manner.

New Year’s Eve.

Gaby Deslys (1881–1920), born Marie-Élise-Gabrielle Caire in Marseilles, was an internationally famous dancer, singer and actress who died of complications arising from the Spanish influenza epidemic.

Literally, a covered walkway under which a promenade takes place.

Marie-Thérèse Brocheton (1866–1952), wife of Jacques, comte de la Béraudière (1864–1949). She was mistress of comte Henry Greffulhe (1848–1932), who was said to be the model for the duc de Guermantes in Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu.

Lady Millicent Fanny St Clair-Erskine (1867–1955), daughter of the 4th Earl of Rosslyn, was one of several British grandes dames nursing in France. Her husband, the 4th Duke of Sutherland, whom she had married in 1884, had died in 1913 and she had married the following year Major Percy FitzGerald (1873–1933), though was still widely known as Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland.

Prince Antônio Gastão de Orléans e Bragança (1881–1918). His mother was Princess Imperial of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro II. He was aide-de-camp to Brigadier General John ‘Jack’ Seely (1868–1947), 1st Baron Mottistone, formerly Secretary for State for War and in 1918 Commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Prince Antonio died of injuries sustained in an air crash in Edmonton, Middlesex, on 29th November 1918.

Prince Gaston d’Orléans, comte d’Eu (1842–1922), Imperial Consort of Brazil, was son of Louis, duc de Nemours, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was a grandson of King Louis Philippe of France (1773–1850) and first cousin through his mother of both Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland (1819–1901) and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819–1861).

Married Henri de Galard de Brassac Béarn (1874–1947), comte de Béarn. His first wife, Beatrice Winans (1884–1907), had been from Baltimore.