Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill
Sister of the Duke of Marlborough and Vanderbilt heiress whose exotic marriages took her around the world
LADY
SARAH SPENCER-CHURCHILL, who has died suddenly in Connecticut, aged 78,
was a powerful personality, 6 ft tall, rich and well-known in
international society for several decades.
Born
on December 17 1921, Sarah was the eldest daughter of the Marquess of
Blandford (later the 10th Duke of Marlborough) and his wife, Hon Mary
Cadogan. Had she been born a man, she would have become - and perhaps
should have been - the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
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| Blenheim Palace |
She was christened Sarah Consuelo, her second name reflecting her position as the eldest grandchild of Consuelo Vanderbilt, by then Madame Jacques Balsan, from whom she inherited a substantial fortune, including her fabulous jewellery.
At the time of her
birth, Blenheim Palace was occupied by her grandfather, the 9th Duke,
married in the same year as Sarah's birth to his second wife, Gladys
Deacon. Blenheim was not a happy home and became increasingly less so,
as Duke and Duchess grew to despise one another. Sarah's childhood
memories of the place were brief visits from Lowesby Hall, where the
Blandfords then lived.
The children enjoyed clutching the Blenheim
spaniels as much as the 9th Duke hated them. In the 1930s, the Duke
moved out of the palace, leaving his wife a virtual recluse there,
surrounded by her dogs. Eventually, in 1933, the Duke sacked the staff
and closed the palace down. Only after his death in 1934, could Sarah
look on Blenheim as home.
It was at Blenheim in the last pre-war
season that Lady Sarah came out, with a magnificent ball given by her
parents in July 1939. The palace, lake and terraces were floodlit and
the trees in the garden decorated with Japanese lanterns. Don Carlos and
His Strolling Players walked about in Tyrolean costumes, singing, and
in the ballroom the guests danced to Ambrose and his band. The Duke and
Duchess of Kent, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden were among the 900
guests, and the evening echoed the atmosphere of the Duchess of
Richmond's Ball before Waterloo.
Consuelo Balsan was there, once more enjoying the palace, while her husband, Jacques Balsan, who had profited all too well from monkey gland injections, was a figure of some alarm to his grand-daughters. Chips Channon, one of the guests, wondered: "Shall we ever see the like again?" and noted "literally rivers of champagne". Within a month, war was declared.
Blenheim housed a school during the Second World War. Lady Sarah eschewed the world of society and racing to work for a year in the Morris Metal Works munitions factory at Cowley, travelling from Blenheim in an old Ford, and calling herself "Sally Churchill". She made shell fuses, and once injured her hand in a jig seriously enough to have to go to the Radcliffe Infirmary.
In 1943, Lady Sarah married Lieutenant Edwin (Ed) Russell, USNR, a good looking and charming American, whose parents lived at Beverly Hills. He became a publisher with Vogue in New York, and they settled in Oyster Bay. They had four daughters, one of whom is married to the British politician, Neil Balfour. During the marriage, Lady Sarah invested £500,000 in a television company, affiliated to NBC, showing educational programmes.
The Russells also lived part of the year in Jamaica, in a house overlooking Montego Bay. Lady Sarah soon became a popular port of call for many winter holidaymakers from among her wide circle of friends. When not entertaining, she threw herself energetically into local politics and also oversaw a number of farms and a boutique selling antiques in the former Masonic Hall.
Lady Sarah's marriage to Russell was dissolved in 1966, and she then married two men in quick succession. The first was a peripatetic Chilean playboy called Guy Burgos (who later escorted Dewi Sukarno for a time). Burgos became her partner in an art gallery in New York. When they married, she was 44 and he was 28. The Burgos marriage was swiftly dissolved in Mexico after less than a year.
Sarah's final husband was an ochre-skinned 27-year-old Greek, Theodorus (Theo) Roubanis, variously described as a penniless merchant seaman, actor and film producer. Guests recalled Roubanis playing the guitar in the evenings and singing melancholy Greek songs, for which he had a talent. This marriage in 1967 survived until they divorced in 1981, amid a barrage of complicated settlement claims.
The Roubanises were especially considerate to Sarah's step-mother, Laura, the 10th Duke's second wife, when she was widowed soon after marrying him in 1972. She stayed with them in a beautiful house they had built outside Athens. Sarah had a yacht and made expeditions to the Greek islands.
In January 1977, Lady Sarah was the victim of an attack at her Jamaican home. Masked intruders, high on drugs, broke into her house, assaulted her and held her captive for several hours. At one point she was slung over the shoulder of one of the thieves and carried into her maid's room. She escaped by punching her attacker and fleeing in her blood-stained nightdress.
Her house guest, the fabric designer, Michael Szell, was shot in the arm and had to be rushed into Kingston for emergency surgery. Though much shaken by this incident, Lady Sarah was determined not to leave Jamaica, a decision welcomed by Michael Manley, the Jamaican Prime Minister, for the sake of the island's reputation and tourist revenue. She only retreated to the United States some years later.
In the 1980s she settled in Beverly Hills, having reverted to her maiden name, with a permanent house guest called David Columbia, who later ghosted the memoirs of Debbie Reynolds. Later still she befriended a Jamaican property magnate called Nicky Malabre. And she ran a business called Churchill Galleries.
She is survived by her four daughters.
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| Lady Sarah And Friend |
Consuelo Balsan was there, once more enjoying the palace, while her husband, Jacques Balsan, who had profited all too well from monkey gland injections, was a figure of some alarm to his grand-daughters. Chips Channon, one of the guests, wondered: "Shall we ever see the like again?" and noted "literally rivers of champagne". Within a month, war was declared.
Blenheim housed a school during the Second World War. Lady Sarah eschewed the world of society and racing to work for a year in the Morris Metal Works munitions factory at Cowley, travelling from Blenheim in an old Ford, and calling herself "Sally Churchill". She made shell fuses, and once injured her hand in a jig seriously enough to have to go to the Radcliffe Infirmary.
In 1943, Lady Sarah married Lieutenant Edwin (Ed) Russell, USNR, a good looking and charming American, whose parents lived at Beverly Hills. He became a publisher with Vogue in New York, and they settled in Oyster Bay. They had four daughters, one of whom is married to the British politician, Neil Balfour. During the marriage, Lady Sarah invested £500,000 in a television company, affiliated to NBC, showing educational programmes.
The Russells also lived part of the year in Jamaica, in a house overlooking Montego Bay. Lady Sarah soon became a popular port of call for many winter holidaymakers from among her wide circle of friends. When not entertaining, she threw herself energetically into local politics and also oversaw a number of farms and a boutique selling antiques in the former Masonic Hall.
Lady Sarah's marriage to Russell was dissolved in 1966, and she then married two men in quick succession. The first was a peripatetic Chilean playboy called Guy Burgos (who later escorted Dewi Sukarno for a time). Burgos became her partner in an art gallery in New York. When they married, she was 44 and he was 28. The Burgos marriage was swiftly dissolved in Mexico after less than a year.
Sarah's final husband was an ochre-skinned 27-year-old Greek, Theodorus (Theo) Roubanis, variously described as a penniless merchant seaman, actor and film producer. Guests recalled Roubanis playing the guitar in the evenings and singing melancholy Greek songs, for which he had a talent. This marriage in 1967 survived until they divorced in 1981, amid a barrage of complicated settlement claims.
The Roubanises were especially considerate to Sarah's step-mother, Laura, the 10th Duke's second wife, when she was widowed soon after marrying him in 1972. She stayed with them in a beautiful house they had built outside Athens. Sarah had a yacht and made expeditions to the Greek islands.
In January 1977, Lady Sarah was the victim of an attack at her Jamaican home. Masked intruders, high on drugs, broke into her house, assaulted her and held her captive for several hours. At one point she was slung over the shoulder of one of the thieves and carried into her maid's room. She escaped by punching her attacker and fleeing in her blood-stained nightdress.
Her house guest, the fabric designer, Michael Szell, was shot in the arm and had to be rushed into Kingston for emergency surgery. Though much shaken by this incident, Lady Sarah was determined not to leave Jamaica, a decision welcomed by Michael Manley, the Jamaican Prime Minister, for the sake of the island's reputation and tourist revenue. She only retreated to the United States some years later.
In the 1980s she settled in Beverly Hills, having reverted to her maiden name, with a permanent house guest called David Columbia, who later ghosted the memoirs of Debbie Reynolds. Later still she befriended a Jamaican property magnate called Nicky Malabre. And she ran a business called Churchill Galleries.
She is survived by her four daughters.
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