Heather Jenner (real name Heather Lyon; 1914 – 1991) was an English matchmaker, who ran a

marriage bureau A dating agency, also known as a marriage bureau, marriage agency, matrimonial bureau or matrimonial agency, is a business that provides matchmaking services to potential couples, with a view toward romance and/or marriage between them. Variati ...

, called "The Marriage Bureau", in

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

, London.

Biography

The daughter of Cyril Arthur Lyon, an Army general, she married, first, in 1942, Michael George Cox, from whom she was divorced in 1955 to marry the writer

Stephen Potter Stephen Meredith Potter (1 February 1900 – 2 December 1969) was a British writer best known for his parodies of self-help books, and their film and television derivatives. After leaving school in the last months of the First World War he wa ...

. Widowed in 1969, she later married Sir John Hastings James, deputy master and Comptroller of the

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly ow ...

. She established the agency called "The Marriage Bureau" in 1939, and kept the business secret from her family and friends, using the name "Heather Jenner", as such activity was considered scandalous at the time. Her autobiography, ''Marriage is My Business'', was published in 1954. She appeared as a castaway on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'' on 31 July 1967.

Bibliography

* (in French) * * * * *

References

1914 births 1991 deaths 20th-century English businesspeople Businesspeople from the City of Westminster English autobiographers English non-fiction writers Matchmakers People from Mayfair Place of birth missing Place of death missing Women autobiographers {{England-bio-stub